Questions are lingering on why Ugandan authorities have continued to conduct compulsory Covid-19 tests on outgoing travellers at Entebbe International Airport, yet results are unwanted in destination countries.
This has left a vast number of citizens scratching their heads. Many questions than answers have raised alarm amongst travellers who are subjected to mandatory Covid -19 testing, involving hefty charges before catching a flight at Entebbe International Airport.
According to the guidelines issued by the Ministry of Health (MoH) and Uganda Civil Aviation Authority (UCAA), passengers who test positive are stopped from travelling, and advised to embark on the process after treatment.
Besides, special places were gazetted by the government of Uganda to quarantine incoming passengers who test positive for the deadly disease but due to limited resources, the Health Ministry advised that these people go back home, or self isolate in hotels of their own choice as they are being heavily monitored.
In the first instance, Uganda maintained that incoming passengers must possess Covid-19 vaccination certificates to travel. For outgoing passengers however, they had to pay Shs. 100,000 for testing, yet destination countries mind less about the authenticity of test results done at Entebbe International Airport.
Authorities have however continued to charge Shs. 100,000 for a PRC test at designated laboratories in Kampala and Entebbe, yet the test results are irrelevant in recipient countries.
This has generated alarm and raised eye brows among international travellers who continue to question the relevance of such expensive tests, moreover which are not needed in recipient countries
States such as UK, Qatar, UAE, USA, Israel, Saudi Arabia, among others which issued clear procedures that a passenger should simply present the vaccination certificate.
With that note therefore, there are questions and genuine concerns as to why passengers still pay for Covid-19 tests while leaving Uganda.
Significant players in the private sector maintain that forced Covid testing continues to cripple the tourism industry at a time when Uganda is reeling from the adverse effects of Covid-19.
Most Influential people in government circles say that mandatory testing is aimed at sustaining laboratories which were authorized to test travellers by the Ministry of Health, but the irony remains the fact that why doesn’t government disaband those laboratories, since recipient countries no longer ask for test results?
Among others, these laboratories include, Test and Fly, Kazuri, Volcano Safaris, Uganda Virus Research Institute and Makerere University.
These controversial laboratories according to trusted sources are co-owned by high-ranking officials in government who have since influenced the testing of passengers leaving the country, and their closure would parallel the vested interests of those officials.
To that effect therefore, this website has embarked on covert investigations to find out the real owners of these laboratories and why they continue to charge Ugandans hefty sums of money for Covid testing, even as recipeient countries never even look at the results.
A highly placed source whose names have not been provided due to security reasons intimated that a retired powerful general has majority shares in Kazuri Laboratories while a big official in Health Ministry co-owns Test and Fly lab.
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