Defiant Kampala City Lord Mayor, Erias Lukwago, has rejected orders by the Minister of Kampala Hon. Betty Amongi to observe the mandatory two weeks of self isolation after some 4 staff at City Hall tested positive for the novel coronavirus.
It is on record that earlier this week, Minister Amongi ordered Lukwago and his assistants, councillors, and the Kampala Capital City Authority (KCCA) Executive Director Eng. Andrew Kitaka, his deputy and all the 11 directors to go into self isolation.
The Lord Mayor and Councillors however refused to go into isolation citing a scheme by the Minister to take attention and heat away from some unaccounted for Shs 1Bn that is said to have been alloted to her office for the city’s COVID-19 response.
Lukwago and his team who are demanding clear details of the KCCA staff that tested positive for COVID-19, insist that they cannot go into isolation without a clear plan on how the city will be run in absence of top officials.
“According to the minister, I am identified as one of the people who came into contact with one of the suspects, but they are not telling me who that person is and how I came into contact with the person. They should identify the suspects, we know who came into contact with them and then isolate such people, instead of saying the leaders should go into self-isolation,” Lukwago told the press.
Minister Amongi in turn hit back, saying the Lord Mayor is playing cheap politics during the pandemic.
“If the Prime Minister can go for self-isolation, who is Lukwago? He is playing politics. It is public knowledge that four people tested positive and the person who served Lukwago and the other people in the executive meeting at City Hall tested positive. The ED and his deputy went for self-isolation because they attended the same meeting with Lukwago,” Amongi said.
KCCA spokesperson, Peter Kaujju, confirmed that all the people that are ‘supposed to be in isolation’ are in isolation save for the Lord Mayor and some councillors.
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