Norbert Mao, the Democratic Party President believes the government had ‘good intentions’ in the way they handled the Covid-19 pandemic.

Government has received criticism from a section of the population on how they have gone about the Covid-19 pandemic since it hit the country in March last year.

The government has since the start of the pandemic imposed lockdowns to arrest the spread, provided relief aid to disadvantaged urban people and started vaccination among the vulnerable groups.

The Prime Minister’s office concluded the relief fund of 100,000 Shillings as confirmed by Betty Among the minister of gender, social and labour affairs.

Government continues with the vaccination of the population with more vaccines having arrived in the country recently and several hospitals designated for the process.

Dr. Besigye has been critical about the continued closure of schools and questioned the vaccination process.

On schools, the opposition leader said: “The biggest crime this government has ever done is refusing to reopen schools. There is absolutely no justification for the measures that have been taken in education.”

He added on vaccines: “Delay in buying vaccines was caused by inclusion of a dodgy Shs 12bn in a Shs 297bn supplementary budget presented to parliament! The budget also included Shs 18.5bn for vaccines.”

However, Norbert Mao seemed to give government benefit of doubt.

Appearing on NBS Frontline show, he articulated: “Time has come again for Ugandans to say we have a pandemic. It is the duty of government to build trust. When you make a mistake, you admit it quickly and fix it.”

The DP chief Norbert Mao pointed out: “There are bad eggs that have spoiled the good intentions of the government. Those should be punished. Winning trust involves not having conflicting arguments.”

He urged: “The government should speed up things. There was a time big people were dying, and I said. Ahh, I should stay home. I was in the age bracket.”

Norbert Mao aimed a faint attack on civil servants: “The Ministry of Health is too defensive. The professionals should leave the politicians to do their things because that is how they earn a living. I would like to appeal to those on the frontline because your reputation is on the line.”

He castigated: “The whole world is dealing with this thing. The biggest weakness is communication. I have been saying loudspeakers should be mounted and message delivered in public spaces that their lives are in their hands. There is a limit to what government can do.”

Norbert Mao hailed

Director of information and publicity at NRM, had kind words towards Mao who he hailed for his consistent message on Covid-19.

Dombo said: “I want to thank Hon. Mao. Even if he is the opposition, he has been patriotic in matters of the pandemic. The conspiracy theories made people refuse to vaccinate until this second wave when they saw people dying.”

He urged: “It is important for everybody to provide leadership and protect our people by providing the right information. We shall argue politics later.”

Dombo said: “The message is important. There are people who listen to Maama Fiina. It is not only doctors, all people of influence should provide information.”