It is my opinion that it is the role of the Uganda Government to renovate Pallisa Hospital and it is the role of our Members of Parliament (MPs) to advocate for Government to do its job.

This indeed was my response, way back on 31st July 2019, to my fellow district mate who sent me a private message requesting as follows:

I need to add you to some serious Pallisa WhatsApp group. It is made up of different ipalisa. Currently, they are organising a marathon to raise funds for renovation of Pallisa Hospital. If you don’t mind share your number I request admin to add you. Thanks.

Yes, I also informed my district mate that I don’t use WhatsApp for issues such as these and of course did not share with them my number.

But since then, I have received several private messages from friends, colleagues and even family making similar requests. So I have decided to make my opinion public through my blog.

And yes, when I got to learn the kinds of activity that the sons and daughters of Pallisa are sponsoring as part of the event my opinion is further entrenched; and I am not shifting one bit.

Apparently, an aerobics trainer is being sponsored to come all the way from Kampala, apparently the one who guided during the presidential launch of National Fitness Day. Mmmmm … That there will be dancing for the LORD (Christian hymns) as you exercise. Okay mmmmm… That there will be Zumba, Kona Dance, Insanity and Self Defense skills; really mmmmm…

I wonder whether there will be discourse on why our MPs allowed for resources to be squandered on the “presidential launch of National Fitness Day” when Pallisa Hospital was in a state of disrepair for decades and with insufficient medical supplies.

I wonder whether there will be reckoning on why it is the case that nearly all doctors deployed to Pallisa Hospital have private health care facilities to which they refer patients; some of whom they likely see at the public hospital for which they are paid a salary to provide free healthcare services.

I wonder how come Pallisa is among the districts which have been reported in the past as one which does not fully utilize its annual funding allocation and the funds are returned to the centre. Will the district officials be held to account on this contradiction? How is it that they returned money to the centre when our public hospital needed renovation?

How does “dancing for the LORD” or dancing Zumba, Kona Dance and learning insanity and self-defense skills deal with the root reasons as to why Pallisa Hospital was never maintained in the first place and now needs charity to renovate? Who did not do their job? Who squandered the resources?

Basically, in this case as well, Kalinaki’s analysis is on point as he shared it in an article whose title asks a profound question: “Go on, run for cancer, jump for water but who’s gonna fight for your rights?”

By Alinga Norah Owaraga