Former Presidential candidate Joseph Kiiza Kabuleta has urged President Museveni to have all COVID restrictions relaxed as the first step towards addressing the deteriorating security situation in the country.
Kabuleta who also doubles as the leader of the political pressure group National Economic Empowerment Dialogue (NEED) said this in the wake of Tuesday’s coordinated twin bomb blasts which are now known to have killed at least four people and scores injured.
“The police and other security organs are abdicating their primary responsibility of protecting the lives and property of Ugandans and are instead raiding bars and locking up revelers. Perhaps that’s why we are having all these fatal bomb blasts across the city,” he said.
“The president should thus remove curfew and other restrictions so that policemen can get back to the serious work of hunting down real criminals and terrorists,” Kabuleta added.
Ahead of the covid-19 presidential address on Saturday, Kabuleta said: “COVID cases are dropping day by day and the original vaccination target of 4.8m people has been met. So there’s no conceivable reason for the president to carry on with the restrictions.”
Kabuleta also cautioned the president against using Tuesday’s unfortunate twin bomb blasts as an excuse to keep the nation in a perpetual state of emergency.
“Ugandans are yearning for their freedom to move and associate as they please. These are part of their rights. School children are anxious to get back to their routine and the entertainment industry is looking forward to a merry Christmas, there is no need for a state of emergencies any longer. COVID has largely been contained. So what’s the rationale behind prolonging curfew and other restrictions into January 2022!” he said.
Insight of the July 2010 bomb blasts as an example, Kabuleta noted that Ugandans learned how to be vigilant at entrances to public places and that the right to assemble was respected thus urging the government to sensitize the population to resort to the same approach if the current wave of terror is to be defeated.
