Detained Mukono Municipality legislator, Betty Nambooze Bakireke has finally been recommended for transfer to India for further medical examination and treatment by authorities at Mulago hospital.
The legislator was arrested ten days ago and charged with offensive communication in connection with the recent murder of former Arua municipality MP Ibrahim Abiriga and his body guard, Saidi Kongo Buga near his home in Kawanda, Wakiso district, and detained at Naggalama Police Station.
She would later develop illness which prompted police to rush her to Kiruddu, an satellite facility of Mulago main referral hospital, where she has been receiving treatment.
Also read: MP Nambooze Arrested Amid Probe Into Offensive Postings
But, according to Dr Byarugaba Baterana, the Executive Director of Mulago hospital, the opposition lawmaker needs to travel to India with immediate effect for further examination.
“She’s sick and needs to go abroad for further checkups with her doctors who did the operations. We have worked together with a team of six doctors and we have given information to our Honourable Minister to report to the line ministry. Our Honorable Minister has also reported to the relevant authorities including Parliament. She [Nambooze] needs to travel as soon as heaven allows. I have also informed our colleagues in Kiruddu to give her a referral note. Let her cross check with Parliament,” Dr Byarugaba said in an interview with a local TV station.
In a letter dated June 20 referring Hon Nambooze to Manipal Spine Care Centre in India, Dr Byarugaba notes that a week prior to Nambooze’s admission at Kiruddu, she experienced severe low back pain radiating to left lower limb which worsened due to movement and vibrations. She also experienced chest and epigastric pains.
A group of six senior medical doctors including Dr Byarugaba Baterana , Dr Waiswa Gonzaga, Dr Nakwagala Nelson, Dr Kabugo Charles, Dr Sseremba Emmanuel and Dr Mukisa Robert intervened and stepped up her treatment.
However, Dr Byarugaba says that even given their laboring, the situation of the sick legislator requires examination by her former doctors in India.
“Despite the above mentioned interventions, the patient still has persistent signs of nerve root compression,” Dr Byarugaba wrote in the letter.
“In the view of the patient’s failure to adequately respond to achieve sustained symptom control, the clinical team recommends that the patient be reviewed by the operating surgeon as previously recommended by the medical board,” he added.
We couldn’t ascertain whether Police will honour the doctor’s recommendations and allow Ms Nambooze travel abroad since the Police Spokesperson SSP Emilian Kayima couldn’t pick our telephone calls.
Meanwhile a section of legislators and opposition supporters had Monday threatened to storm Kiruddu hospital on Tuesday June 26, to forcefully extract Nambooze.
While addressing journalists at the FDC offices in Najjanankumbi, the FDC spokesperson Ssemujju Ibrahim Nganda, it was vital for them to take the sick legislator back to her home.
“As colleagues, tomorrow at 11am, we shall go and get her from Kiruddu hospital and take her back home. If Museveni wants Nambooze to die, she can also did from her home because you can’t pretend to be treating someone when you are not treating her,” MP Ssemujju Nganda told journalists in Kampala on Monday.
Also read: Nambooze Sympathizers to Forcefully Extract Her from Hospital