KAMPALA –Police have arrested Makindye West Member of Parliament Allan Ssewanyana after he attempted to lock Kiruddu Hospital during a demonstration over poor sanitation at the facility.
Mr Ssewanyana, together with area leaders and residents, had come to the facility to protest at what they called failure by government to build a modern sewer to deal with the spilling waste at the hospital that has brought a heavy stench.
The legislator said whereas government recently said it had released Shs.3bn to work on a lagoon of the hospital, nothing is yet to be done at the facility.
“I am privy to information that government released money to the tune of 3bn but when we see the situation remaining the same, we take action to demand for accountability,” Mr Ssewanyana said as he arrived at the hospital to address about 200 residents who had gathered there.
However, police blocked him, asking him to present a written clearance from the IGP to speak to waiting residents as part of the Public Order Management Act
But he said the public gathering regulations required clearance where at least 200 people would converge.
When he insisted on moving ahead, he was manhandled and bundled into a police pickup truck and driven off.
Since Kiruddu, which is Mulago’s satellite referral hospital, was set up in 2016, there has been public outcry over sewage management as waste spills through an open drainage channel right from the hospital, creating a stench. The hospital sewage flows through Munyonyo Valley zone to Munyonyo- Kyengeza till when it joins an arm of River Mayanja.
The Minister of State for Health for General Duties, Ms Sarah Opendi, said money to work on the lagoon at the facility has already been released.
“But we are still sorting out land issues with the Buganda Land Board (the landlords). The public should be sure of the availability of a lagoon,” Opendi said.
The hospital admits an average 250 patients daily.
