Museveni to Address Tomorrow Friday

President Yoweri Museveni will tomorrow Friday at 8pm address the nation on a number of issues, according to his Senior Press Secretary Nabusayi Linda Wamboka.

According to Nabusayi, the President will use the address which will be relayed live on all major TV and Radio stations in the country, to talk to the people of Uganda on matters of national importance.

She did not delve into specific issues of national importance the President will his addressing the nation about.

The last time the President delivered a related address delivered was last week on specifically the progress of the COVID-19 response in the country where he directed that places of worship be opened up following a lockdown that was installed in March, 2021 as a measure to control the vast spread of the disease.

During last week’s address, the President not more than 200 provided the place of worship can ensure physical distancing of 2 meters on either side and adequate aeration.

The President emphasized that there must be strict adherence to all SOPs at all times in the places and no congregation for worship should go beyond the curfew hours. He also directed that attendance of persons to Weddings, Burials and other social events should not exceed 200 under strict observance of SOPs.

The President noted that for schools shall be reopened for Post-Secondary institutions of learning from 1st November 2021 while the rest of the learning institutions will open in January 2022.

Museveni highlighted that for the sectors that are closed to be reopened, there needs mass vaccination targeting a total of 4.8 million people who are most vulnerable including teachers, non-teaching staff, elderly, the 330,000 students aged 18 years and above among others.

Currently, vaccination of students, elderly and other Ugandans is ongoing across the country. The President on Wednesday last week, said that 2,294,000 doses of vaccines are currently available at the National Medical Stores (NMS) out of 11,978,840 million doses expected by end of December 2021.

It is not clear whether he will explain the latest progress in combating the spread of the virus.

His address comes at a time when Ugandans on both social and mainstream media are discussing his proposal for courts to deny granting bail to suspects of capital offences.

Speaking on Wednesday at the swearing in of new judges, Museveni said bail is not a constitutional right.

“It is abominable. I would like us to cure this ideological disagreement. This bail, what is the hurry? Who are you trying to please? Who said bail is a right?…. I am going to summon the NRM caucus and if necessary, we put it to a referendum. With this provocation, people will take the law into their hands,” Museveni said.

The President this week met members of the NRM (ruling party) Parliamentary Caucus on the same where it was reported that most members opposed the proposal. They were thus asked to conduct further consultation on the matter before reconvening again after two weeks.

The President in his communication on bail, hinted on the possibility of putting the idea to a referendum so Ugandans can decide.

The mysterious killings in the Masaka subregion that happened in the month of August and left 26 people dead, could be another issue he made hint on. In his last communication on the same he said that the killers will all be arrested because they had left many clues.

Since the start of this month, no related new deaths have been reported in the area.