Lubowa Hospital Lockout: How MPs On Speaker Among’s Order Were Kicked Out Like Stray Dogs Again

Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee Chairperson Hon Muwanga Kivumbi, has revealed that Friday’s planned visit to the Lubowa hospital site by the Committee flopped, following a request by Speaker Among to have the visit postponed, after the Lubowa hospital team asked for more time to prepare for the visiting members of parliament and press.

In one of the letters paraded by Muwanga during the press briefing, Kenneth Akiiri, Head of Finance and Administration at the Ministry of Finance, wrote on behalf of the Permanent Secretary on 24th April 2024, asking the Committee to halt its planned visit siting the bloated delegation that was coming from Parliament, in order to allow the Lubowa team to provide the safety gears.

“Given the substantial size of the delegation, the developer has expressed the need for additional time to procure the necessary visitors during the site visit. Consequently, an alternative date for the visit will be communicated in due course. We kindly request that the MPs defer the visit until the new date is communicated. We assure you that we are diligently working to ensure that all necessary arrangements for site safety are put in place promptly ahead of the oversight visit,” read in part the letter.

“We sent them names of the Committee members, we even sent them the sizes of the shoes of MPs on the Committee and these reflector jackets, you can even get a tailor to make them for you, so they aren’t exception and have some electronics that can detect a brick falling. We will not be deterred by these tactics of delays; I am yet again going to communicate another date. This is a multi-billion project that are finding it hard to provide safety protective gears because, PAC has 50 MPs, the press is about 20 and the support staff is about 15. Is that too big to go even to Owino to buy those other reflectors, to buy plastic helmets and to buy gumboots?” added Muwanga.

“The owner’s engineer disputed the auditor generals’ report so we wanted to go and verify. We aren’t engineers but construction is like pregnancy, so you don’t need an expert to tell that really, some work is going on in construction and they aren’t building the hospital in the underground. Lubowa isn’t a classified site. Constructing a hospital isn’t a military facility it is for the people of Uganda. That hospital should have been up and running by 2022, they postponed to September 2024, my friend the Lord Mayor Erias Lukwago should never have gone to India, he should have been treated in Lubowa,” added Muwanga.

Muwanga made the revelation while addressing journalists at Parliament, where he revealed that the first visiting date was cancelled after the proprietors of Lubowa demanded for the names, shoes sizes of all MPs on the Committee in order to avail them with personal protective gears while on site.

“When the clerk received the letter, the Speaker wrote asking the Committee to stay their visit to Lubowa hospital. I am not stubborn in the way I do things; I am a very patient man to the extent that I can even escort these people up to their home. We appeal to the powers that be, hands off, let the Committee do its work,” said Muwanga.

In February 2024, the speaker of Parliament Rt. Hon Anita Annet Among has ordered the minister of Health to investigate the circumstances under which the Leader of the Opposition and his team were blocked from accessing the construction site intended for the International Specialized Hospital in Lubowa.

Article 164 of the Constitution of the Republic of Uganda, 1995 is instructive in as far as accountability for public resources is concerned and accountability is an integral aspect of democratic governance for which Article 79 of the Constitution mandates Parliament to promote. The speaker quoted.

The speaker told the members of parliament that the House requires a progress report on the International Specialized Hospital Lubowa before embarking on the appropriation process. This followed the incident where the Leader of Opposition Joel Ssenyonyi Led a delegation to the Lubowa construction site only to be blocked by security and denied access to the site.