Ugandan police said on Friday, March 27th, 2020 that two men were hospitalized, after being shot by officers for violating restrictions on transport, ordered in a move by the government to curtail the spread of coronavirus disease (COVID-19). Ugandan President, Yoweri Museveni, had advised people in the country to stay home but did not order an outright lockdown.

Schools, places of worship and entertainment, as well as some agricultural markets have been ordered to be shut down for a month. The government has also banned people from using public transport, being more than three persons in a car, or one on a private motorbike.

Police officers on duty to enforce a presidential directive stopped two men on a motorbike in Mukono (near Kampala) on Thursday,

Uganda Metropolitan Police Spokesman, Patrick Onyango, told AFP.

They attacked one of the officers, he fired the warning shot in the air but they charged at him and he shot one of them in the leg and another in the stomach.

Onyango, however, said that the men, who were hospitalized had defended themselves by saying they did not hear the directive banning public transport and private motorcycles carrying more than one person.

Uganda has recorded eighteen (18) confirmed cases of coronavirus disease (COVID-19), many of those case, just as in Rwanda, are travellers who had entered into the country from Dubai, UAE.

On Thursday, March 26th, 2020 policemen and soldiers in Kampala beat up people in bars, market goers and fruit vendors with batons, as they struggled to disperse people that were gathering in groups.

The Trade and Industry Minister, Amelia Kyambadde said in a press release that security forces should

refrain from beating people. Please explain to them through the community radio towers in the local language.

Ugandan legislator, Mohammed Nsereko, representing Kampala Central in the parliament, told AFP on Friday that

we support government’s efforts to stop the spread of coronavirus but banning public transport without giving time for people to prepare for the shut down was wrong.

Now that people can’t move due to lack of public transport and are staying home we are having cases of households running out of food and unable to pay rent or medical services,

said Nsereko.

Restrictions on movement and total lockdown are having adverse effect on the impoverished people in the African continent, where many live from-hand-to-mouth based on the money they can make in any given day.

In East Africa, Mauritius and Rwanda are the only two countries that have been placed on complete lockdown, while there are nighttime curfews in Kenya and South Sudan.

There was a huge spike in the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in Mauritius on Thursday, March 26th from forty eight (48) to eighty two (82), with two deaths.

Burundi and South Sudan are the only two remaining nations in East Africa that haven’t recorded any case of coronavirus.

Justin Nwosu

Justin Nwosu is the founder and publisher of Flavision. His core interest is in writing unbiased news about Nigeria in particular and Africa in general. He’s a strong adherent of investigative journalism, with a bent on exposing corruption, abuse of power and societal ills.