A group of fewer than ten Ugandans was seen in front of the hospital in Seattle where the Ugandan Speaker of parliament Jacob Oulanyah is reportedly receiving treatment after the specialists in Mulago national referral hospital in Uganda recommended him to seek health care elsewhere.
Jacob Oulanyah was flown into the United States of America by a chartered Uganda airlines flight that reportedly cost Ugx 1.7 billion (around $490,000). This came not even a week after the Ugandan government spent close to close to $130,000 to fly back the body of the former minister of ethics Rev Fr Lukodo. Still with a period of not more than 3 weeks; the government spent more than $150,000 to fly back to the late governor of the bank of Uganda Tumusiime Mutebile from Kenya as well as organizing his burial.
Even though the other two dignitaries had received treatment outside Uganda, Jacob Oulanyah’s chartered flight raised a lot of red flags thus sparking the peaceful demonstration just outside the hospital where he is reportedly receiving treatment.
The participants were dressed partly in red with people power red berets that are well known to be connected to the National unity platform political party in Uganda. The demonstrators had a mini mobile public address system as well as charts outlining their accusations to current Uganda’s government including but not limited to torture, dictatorship, abuse of human rights among several other injustices. They added voice to their charts outlining how allegedly president Museveni’s government has killed more people than 99/11 but the American government continues to sponsor and support his government.
The demonstrator expressed their dissatisfaction over leaders in Uganda failing to fix the health sector because they know that they will access good health services outside Uganda. For this reason, they were demanding that Jacob Oulanyah be taken back to Uganda to receive the same health services that all the other Ugandans receive.