Ministry of Unhealth. Permanent Secretary Atwine feeling the heat. Photo: Twitter.
The secretary of the opposition Forum for Democratic Change (FDC) electoral commission Augustine Ojobile and two others were arrested for their alleged involvement in a campaign against Diana Atwine, the Permanent Secretary of the Uganda Ministry of Health, for alleged corruption in the battle against Covid-19.
The arrests follow a “coffin protest” whereby coffins were placed by activists near the Main Referral Hospital Mulago, in Kampala the capital, to signify public anger over allegations of embezzlement by officials in the dictatorship of Gen. Yoweri Museveni, including health officials.
Activists want Atwine dismissed.
The hospital and the Health ministry have been denounced for neglecting front-line workers and the general public even though since last year the World bank and IMF have loaned Uganda about $1.8 billion.
Augustine Ojobile is considered a patriot and renowned human rights activist who was part of the Jobless Brotherhood, a youth organization that named and shamed corrupt government officials and Members of Parliament (MPs). With the famous parliamentary protest that involved placing pigs in the Parliamentary parking lot, dictator Museveni’s security operatives have witch-hunted the perceived members of the group.
Ojobile was arrested at a time his family needed him the most. His wife Namale Prisca just had a difficult delivery a few days ago. His arrest is part of the ongoing campaign by the regime of kidnapping, torturing, and murdering Ugandans at will, in order to create mass terror, since Gen. Museveni stole the election from Bobi Wine on Jan. 14. The U.S. in a statement denounced the vote as “neither free nor fair.” Yet, on June 28, the IMF loaned the illegitimate regime $1 billion. Last year the IMF loaned the corrupt regime $491 million and the World Bank $300 million to fight the Covid-19 pandemic. The regime diverted the loans to Museveni’s use and to security forces to violently suppress the opposition party supporters before, during, and after the election.
The kidnappings, torture, and killings have been denounced by Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International. The BBC broadcast a special report on the state murders.
The regime is terrified by Ugandan diaspora activists. Protests in front of the IMF offices caused the bank to scale down the first disbursement to only $258 million, with promises to monitor its use to prevent corruption.
Animal Farm. Members of the Jobless Brotherhood protest with pig heads.
In desperation the regime convinced Turkish authorities to arrest and detain a vocal Ugandan exile, Fred Lumbuye, whom the regime wants deported back to Kampala. The global Ugandan diaspora community have quickly mobilized in solidarity, raising tens of thousands of dollars for legal representation to prevent Lumbuye’s deportation to the killers.
With the World Bank and IMF money, the regime has been trying to bribe all potential sources of opposition. Weeks after the $1 billion IMF loan which is meant to combat the pandemic and offer stimulus for the economy, on July 22 dictator Museveni’s regime announced that the country’s 529 MPs and 26 ex-officials would receive about $53,000 for new luxury vehicles. Yet the country’s per capita income is under $800 according to the World Bank. Ironically, on the same day the diabolical regime announced this official bribe to lawmakers, it also appealed to the public to donate money which they don’t have, for the purchase of oxygen cylinders and vaccines.
Had the $1.8 billion loan from the IMF and World Bank been properly deployed, and not diverted for political repression and embezzled, most Ugandans could have been vaccinated by now. Instead, the regime recently announced a new lockdown and students are again out of school.
The more the regime intensifies violent repression, the more vigorously activists and patriotic Ugandans fight to remove Museveni’s regime of terror and corruption.
UGPatriots are are group activists worldwide that are working to educate activists in Uganda and outside of Uganda with the aim of removing Museveni from power.
