Analysis
MP Zaake in fight of his life after Police blocks emergency attention abroad
Mukono municipality MP Betty Nambooze visited MP Zaake, despite her health not being in good health. She returned to Uganda a few weeks ago from India where she had gone for medical help after the damage she suffered during a fight in Parliament last September during the lifting of the Age Limit Constitutional Amendment bill
Anxiety continues to mount among supporters of Mityana Municipality MP Francis Zaake following a directive from the Director of Criminal Investigations of the Uganda Police Force that the ill MP be transferred to Mulago National Referral Hospital as opposed to an earlier request by Rubaga hospital director to take him abroad for urgent specialized medical attention.
This was revealed by Masaka district Woman MP Mary Babirye Kabanda who has been spearheading a campaign to ensure that the youthful MP is transferred to India after doctors at Rubaga confirmed they did not have the capacity to handle his situation.
Kabanda said she had seen a letter written by Director of CID Grace Akullo directing that MP Zaake be transferred to Mulago. Kabanda, the Masaka district woman MP, almost close to shading tears, indicated that Ms. Akullo’s directive is nothing but saboteur efforts by the government to prevent the youthful MP from getting better healthcare.
On Saturday August 26, the Director of Rubaga hospital Dr. Andrew Ssekitooleko wrote to the speaker of Parliament asking her to help Zaake ‘access urgent medical help preferably outside Uganda in order to manage acute pain along his spinal code.’
This appeal appears to have been rejected by the government which has the powers can accept or reject the transfer of any high-ranking government official.
Although Parliament is the institution that pays for the medical bills of its members, the decision to sanction such an expenditure to be granted is made by the medical board which gets orders from the president.
Kabanda disputed Akullo’s claim that Police wants to expose Zaake to more specialized healthcare because Lubaga hospital had tried and failed to find specialised doctors from across Uganda.
The move comes in the wake of an NRM Caucus meeting in which President Museveni reportedly told the MPs not to debate the report by a committee of Parliament that investigated the circumstances surrounding the torture of MPs before the recent Arua vote.
Museveni reportedly told MPs that they could not debate the report when the matters on it are still being handled by courts of law.
According Bubuulo county west MP Rose Muntonyi Masaaba, who attended yesterday’s NRM Caucus meeting with Museveni, the president told the MPs that the soldiers beat up the MPs because they provoked them by trying to fight back.
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