On Wednesday last week, President Yoweri Museveni addressed the country about the Coronavirus pandemic and suspended all public transport means for 14 days in order to stop the further spreading of the deadly virus.
The President used the same dress to ban the sale of clothes, phones, jewellery, and other stuff that is not food in the markets, in order to reduce on the congestion in those places that would be prone to fester spreading of the disease.
The following day, Police with the help of Local Defence Unit (LDU) officers deployed heavily in downtown Kampala to implement the President’s directive, but as has been their way over the years, they used a little bit more force than was required, let alone necessary.
They beat, chased and rested traders, confiscated goods and destroyed others, all in the guise of putting the President’s directive into place. One photo from the incident that made rounds on social media was when an LDU officer caned a 46-year-old woman who was selling oranges on the streets. The crying woman attracted public sympathy and good samaritans ‘came through’ for her over the weekend.
South Africa-based Ugandan socialite Don Bahati together with a number of good hearted Ugandans collected items like sugar, salt, maize and wheat flour, soap, other essentials and hard cash totalling to Shs760,000 to help her through quarantine.
With the country on partial lockdown and millions of people home without working, there is bound to be scarcity of food and other essentials to sustain a livelihood. This is why some able Ugandans have come out to reach out to the vulnerable, donating food and other items.