By Leonard Kamugisha Akida,
NJERU
When he recalls the ordeal of Ugandans flying to India in search of treatment, FDC’s Nandala Mafabi shakes his head in disbelief. “Who told you the best equipment must be in India?” he asked, leaning forward as if appealing to an unseen policymaker. “Where is it written that scanners and specialist machines can’t be brought here? This is very painful.”
Mafabi, who is seeking the presidency, said Uganda has no excuse for exporting patients when the country can invest in its own hospitals. “If you make me president, no medical tourism will be here. Everybody will be treated in Uganda,” he told journalists at his home in Njeru before heading to Mayuge for today’s campaign meetings.
According to him, the solution is simple: well-paid health workers, fully equipped facilities, and a restructuring of the referral system. “You will go to a health centre and find a scanner there. Referral hospitals will become national hospitals. Health centre IVs will become referral hospitals—with equipment, with well-paid workers, with medicine. This is very easy to fix,” he said.
Mafabi accused the private sector of exploiting gaps in service delivery, saying the state has a duty to protect citizens from being priced out of essential care. “The private sector cannot thrive by taking advantage of sick people. Uganda needs healthy people for economic growth. Nobody goes to dig when sick. Nobody goes to school when sick.”
He extended the same criticism to the education sector, accusing government of deliberately weakening public schools and hospitals to favour private players.
“Why should you destroy a government school and make the private school best? You have failed,” he said. “You cannot privatize education or health. That’s privatizing a country.”
Mafabi pledged to prioritise public institutions and ensure equal pay for teachers and all civil servants.
“You must protect citizens’ rights with their energy. And that’s what we are going to do. I can assure you, this is possible,” he said.
