Opposition strongman Dr. Kizza Besigye has agreed that President Yoweri Museveni’s “lockdown” strategy is for the best interest of all Ugandans in the fight against COVID-19.
The founding president of the Forum for Democratic Change (FDC) and four-time presidential candidate said that lockdown is the best option, but tasked government on food reserves.
“I agree with Mr Museveni on the lockdown, but the issue of food security must be guaranteed because people risk starving to death in their houses. There is no food reserve at any point in the country,” Besigye said on Facebook live. This comes after President Museveni on Tuesday extended the lockdown to another 21 days “to decisively defeat COVID-19.”
“Right now we are required to lockdown the country, which of course is the best thing to do, but we need a mechanism to sustain the people in the lockdown because majority work for the mouth,” Besigye said.
He further reechoed President Museveni’s messages urging Ugandans to stay home if the country is to fight the pandemic that has seen over 2m people infected and over 127,000 deaths.
“The right thing to do right now is to stay at home. Even in very tough challenges, let’s try not to congregate, not to get out of our homes,” he said.
In a bid to curb the shortage of food, the government last week started distributing food items to vulnerable communities starting with Wakiso and Kampala. In his address on Tuesday, Museveni emphasized that these food items are only for people who work for the mouth and whose daily earnings from casual labor has been cut off as a result of the COVID-19 lockdown.
