Buganda Kingdom has come out to dispute the allegations raised by the Uganda Medical Association in which the medics’ body claim a health worker was assaulted by the security detail of the Katikkiro of Buganda, Charles Peter Mayiga recently.
The medical Association issued a statement on Wednesday condemning the alleged assault perpetrated by the security of the Katikkiro against a female health worker at Kawempe hospital.
The reported assault occurred on Tuesday when Katikkiro Peter Mayiga personally drove an unconscious lady to Kawempe hospital for emergency medical assistance.
While on his way to Kyaggwe where he was set to attend a campaign on coffee farming, the Katikkiro’s motorcade stopped along Sir Apollo Kaggwa and picked a lady identified as Mary Kiconco who had got an accident.
In a rather rare gesture of empathy, the Katikkiro traveled with the lady in his personal car and drove her to Kawempe hospital.
It is at the hospital that the Medical Association claims a health worker was assaulted.
“We have received disturbing information regarding the assault of a health worker at her duty station in Kawempe hospital by the security detail of the Buganda Premier (Katikkiro),” a statement issued by the UMA Secretary General, Dr Mukizi Muhereza reads.
It adds: “This is an assault on all health workers, an assault on the labor laws and all laws that protect the country”.
Muhereza says that health workers are protected and given a conducive environment to carry on their unique duties and that “there is no justification whatsoever for a uniformed, most likely armed member of the security forces to assault a female health worker unprotected and with such a huge difference in power relations”.
When asked to explain how the health worker was assaulted, Dr Muhereza told this website that eye witnesses said that she was slapped by officers from Katikkiro’s security and that an medical examination after she reported the incident to Police, stated that there was proof of harm.
As such, the Uganda Medical Association have demanded a public apology from both the institution of the Katikkiro and the UPDF which provides security to the Buganda Prime Minister.
UMA also demands a speedy investigation, trial and conviction of the assaulting team.
Buganda speaks out
Meanwhile, Buganda Kingdom has denied the allegations raised by the medics, saying there was no assault of any nature during Tuesday’s incident.
Buganda Kingdom’s Minister of Information, Ow’ek. Noah Kiyimba told SoftPower News in an interview that the female health worker in question was not assaulted as alleged. Instead, he blamed the authorities at Kawempe, particularly the female staffer for behaving in an arrogant manner towards the Katikkiro and failure to offer the emergency help to save the patient’s life.
Kiyimba said that the Katikkiro spent about 15 minutes at the hospital trying to engage the female medic to offer first aid to the injured Kiconco but with no success.
“We spent there 15 minutes. We asked who was in charge because the patient required immediate assistance. But this lady spoke very arrogantly. If you look at the footage, the Katikkiro himself spoke to that lady but when he realised she couldn’t offer much, we left,” Owek Kiyimba told this website.
“You can imagine for the time we spent there, we didn’t get even a stretcher. All the lady said was that we should take the patient to Mulago hospital which is the Referral,” he added.
He wondered what sort of hospital would deny an unconscious patient who has just had an accident medical attention, the least being first aid, before making a referral. According to Kiyimba, the health worker insisted that Kawempe deals with only pregant women and that they should get an ambulance.
“I was there myself and in fact I was the last person to get out of the hospital. It is terrible that such a good will act turns out that way”.
In the phone video clips captured during the incident, a seemingly calm Katikkiro is seen talking to the female medic and asking for the person in charge. When he informs her of his schedule to Kyagwe, she insists that the procedure demands that non-pregnant patients are referred. During the interaction, two UPDF officers are onlooking.
In response to the demand for an apology from the medics, Kiyimba said that the kingdom was undertaking the necessary investigations to get to the root of the issue.
“We want to really find out. Am sure there are CCTV cameras at the hospital. We even had journalists. Who would hide such a thing? So, we are following up the matter to really get to the bottom of it,” Kiyimba who doubles as the official Spokesperson for Buganda Kingdom told this website.
Like Kiyimba, Denis Jjuuko who works with Katikkiro Mayiga says the Medical Association should stop trivializing the act of kindness that the Katikkiro expressed, by fabricating allegations.
He says that in recent circumstances which have necessitated for Buganda Kingdom to apologize, it has come out and done so, but that this very incident at Kawempe hospital does not call for an apology.
“The big picture is – Nobody of the Katikkiro’s stature has ever done such an act. The only person that travels in his car is his wife. Not even his children. But he stopped his car and let the injured woman travel with him,” Jjuko said.
“The next time the Katikkiro finds somebody dying, he might not help them,” he adds.
However, Dr Muhereza says that if it is true that the health worker acted in a rude or unprofessional manner, there are legal and administrative channels that can be taken to penalize her, not assault.
Regarding the issue of denying the patient emergency help, he said; “There is something called triage (sorting the severity), if 10 patients converge at the same time, in hospitals we don’t act on a first come first serve basis. We can chose a child who is convulsing and leave you”.
“This lady [health worker] must have looked at the patient and noticed that hers wasn’t an emergency case because the clip later show the patient walking out on her own,” he added.
