Uganda Government has assured citizens of maintenance of heightened vigilance in the fight against the spread of COVID19 as the country readies inaugurate president-elect, Yoweri Museveni, on Wednesday.
The event will take place at Kololo Ceremonial Grounds in Kampala starting at 7am and will be attended by about 4,000 invited people from different categories of Ugandans.
Those invited include 17 delegates from each district of Uganda, all members of parliament elect, all former presidential candidates who participated in the January 14th general elections, all ministers and ministers of state as well as all CEC members.
Others are members of the East African Legislative Assembly, a few people belonging to the business community, a few religious leaders, a few cultural leaders and half list of the normal VIPs.
Themed “Securing the Future”, Wednesday’s swearing-in ceremony will also be witnessed by many heads of state and delegations from across the world.
Many commentators have since raised concerns over what they called going against COVID19 SOPs that put a stop to mass gatherings in the face of the pandemic. The country recently indefinitely suspended all passenger flights from India following detection of the Indian variant in Uganda, something that sparked fears of a resurgence of cases just when its outbreak has waned.
But according to the Minister of ICT and National Guidance, Judith Nabakooba, there should not be cause for alarm since Kololo grounds are big enough to guarantee a safe sitting arrangement for the all invited guests.
While addressing reporters on Sunday, Nabakooba who revealed that the Sitting and Ushering committee together with Construction Committee has finished mapping the grounds for effective and safe sitting of the guests, said that the National Organizing Committee (NOC) guided by SOPs already in place, has established stringent measures to protect guests from contracting or spreading COVID19 during the event.
She said that guests will be seated in clusters of 200 people in the raised tents and all the social distancing will be observed as guided by the Ministry of Health Standard Operating Procedures against the Covid 19 pandemic.
“All invited guests will undertake a Covid 19 test three days to the D day and their results will be kept in the centralized database at Kololo which will be used as a basis for admission to the ceremonial grounds. Those that will be found Covid 19 positive will be contacted before and told not to come,” said Nabakooba.
Government has since declared the day of swear-in president elect a public holiday and the event will be relayed live on all national broadcasters.
This will be president Yoweri Museveni’s sixth term after emerging winner of the January 14 polls with 58.38% of the votes. Museveni captured power in 1986 after a devastating five-year armed rebellion. He has since been credited for among others bringing relative peace, stability and prosperity to the country,