National Resistance Movement

Office of the National Chairperson

Plot 10 Kyadondo Road Box 7778 Kampala Tel: 346295 346279

RESPONSE TO DR. KIIZA BESIGYE ON THE ABIM

HOSPITAL VISIT
As usual, Dr. Besigye is either not honest or not serious in the
manner

he

visited

and

propagandized

unrehabilitated state of Abim Hospital.

about

the

We all know that a

number of the old hospitals are not yet rehabilitated, including

Abim. I have visited Abim Hospital myself several times, the
last time being on the 24th of August 2015.

Following the collapse of the economy and the social services of

Uganda of 1971-1986, the NRM decided to start with the
prevention of diseases rather than waiting to cure them.
Hence, a totally new structure of health care was initiated in
the country levels. This was centered on the brand new Health
Centre IVs at the county and Health Centre IIIs at the sub
county.

These are 193 Health Centre IVs and 930 Health

Centre IIIs (mostly new) in the whole country. Dr. Besigye, if he

was honest or serious, should have visited the 3 Health Centre
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IIIs in Abim. These are at: Rwogom in Nyakwai Sub-County,

Alerek in Alerek Sub-County and Orwamuge in Notuke SubCounty.

It is these that have carried out the successful

immunization programmes for the majority of the 13 diseases.

These

are:

polio,

tuberculosis,

whooping

diphtheria,

cough,

influenza,

tetanus,

measles,

Pneumonia/Meningitis,

Hepatitis B, diarrhea, cervical cancer, mumps and German

measles.
sicknesses.

They also carry out curative work for many

Some of the staff have problems of absenteeism

and stealing of drugs. That is why I set up a Health Monitoring

Unit, headed by Dr. Atwiine, in my office. This unit has made
227 arrests of health staff engaged in malpractices that include
criminal negligence, including death of patients, stealing of
drugs, etc.

The unit, however, is being frustrated by the

Judiciary that continues to release the culprits.

I have

complained to the Principal Judge and the Chief Justice about

this.

Given the chaos in the region, drugs are smuggled to Congo,

South Sudan, etc.

Fortunately, earlier on, I had already

ordered the embossing of all government drugs (tablets,

capsules, bottles etc.). They are, therefore, easy to track. That
2

is why I fell out with the former Permanent Secretary, Ms.

Nannono.

Basing the Health care at the sub-county and the county (HC
IIIs and HC IVs) has caused a Revolution in Uganda. Infant
mortality has declined from 122 to 44 per 1000 live births, life
expectancy has risen from 43 years to 58.7 years in spite of the
AIDs epidemic. The immunization takes place, mainly in these
Health Centre IVs and Health Centre IIIs not in Abim Hospital.
We spent huge amounts of money in building these Health
Centre IVs and Health Centre IIIs. A Health Centre IV, on the
average, costs Ug. Shs. 2.5bn including accommodation for 10
critical medical workers. A Health Centre III, on the average,
costs Ug. Shs. 1.5bn including accommodation for 6 critical
medical workers.

I rejected the plans to extend Health Care to HC IIs at the

Parish.
country.

Indeed, 2,729 of them had been built in the whole

However, that entailed recruiting another 45,000

Health workers which would take too much money. Instead, we

agreed that the Health Centre IIIs should be fully manned with
19 workers and Health Centre IVs with 49 workers each.
3

It is this new Health structure that has seen the Population of

Uganda grow from 14 million in 1986 to 38 million today. I am
always quarrelling with the Ministry of Health about their
failure to add a sustained campaign for good nutrition and
hygiene, working with the Ministries of Local Government and
the Ministry of Information, to this very successful programme
of immunization mentioned above. That would eliminate over
70% of the sicknesses. They should also consolidate the antimalaria campaign of distributing treated bed-nets and residual
indoor spraying.
As for the district Hospitals, we know which ones have been
rehabilitated and those that have not been renovated.

The

ones that have been renovated include: Kabale, Mbarara, FortPortal, Masaka, Hoima, Mubende, Arua, Gulu, Lira, Moroto,
Soroti, Jinja, Mbale and Naguru. These ones have already been
completed.

The ones under renovation are: Entebbe, Mityana, Nakaseke,

Kiryandongo, Anaka, Nebbi, Moyo, Iganga, Kawolo, Kayunga,
Yumbe and Busolwe.
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We also have those ones that have not been rehabilitated but
whose rehabilitation process has just begun. The Ministry of
Health is providing a budget of Ugx. 700M to each of these
Hospitals every financial year for rehabilitation work in a
phased manner.

These include: Abim, Kiboga, Bundibugyo,

Kitagata, Aturtur, Bugiri, Kapchorwa, Kitgum, Itojo.

The

unrehabilitted Hospitals, however, have not stopped the

improved health status of Ugandans because the majority of
the answers were in prevention (immunization, hygiene,
nutrition, behavior change, malaria control, vector control tse
tse flies, river blindness fly, etc.).

That is where the NRM

started from. If Dr. Besigye does not know that, I am informing

him.

It is also not serious for Dr. Besigye to go to Karamoja

and not talk about the peace. When Dr. Besigye left us in 2000
or thereabout, there were 40,000 illegal guns in the hands of
the cattle-rustlers.

Kony was still killing people in Northern

Uganda. ADF was killing people in the Rwenzori Region. The

NRM and the UPDF have totally pacified the Country by
defeating the terrorists and disarming the cattle-rustlers. Is it
not dishonest for Dr. Besigye, to zoom around the country, by
night and by day, in total peace, yet fail to even mention that?
Did Dr. Besigye see the electricity in Abim? What did it cost
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the state to take power there, all the way from Lira?

As he

noticed the unrehabilitated state of Abim hospital, surely, as an

honest

person,

he

could

have

also

noticed

the

great

improvements.

I thank you.

Yoweri K. Museveni Gen. (rtd)

CHAIRMAN NRM, PRESIDENT OF THE REPUBLIC OF UGANDA
AND PRESIDENTIAL FLAG-BEARER FOR THE NRM PARTY