Opposition members of parliament have been barred from accessing the construction site for Lubowa Specialized Hospital, just 3 months after Parliament approved Shs2.7Bn to the Ministry of Health to use for the supervision works at the facility.
The MPs led by Leader of the Opposition Joel Ssenyonyi on Monday reached at the gate leading to the construction site only to be met by police and soldiers who informed them that they could not be let in.
Allan Mayanja, the MP for Nakaseke Central, while reacting to the security blockage at Lubowa, claimed that the impunity exhibited by the security forces isn’t new given earlier reports indicating that Minister of Health, Ruth Aceng was also stopped from accessing the premises, prompting him to raise questions on the powers held by Lubowa hospital proprietor, Enrica Pinetti.
“The impunity we have witnessed today has been around for long. That is why we are asking ourselves, who is behind this project? Who is Pinetti to have so much power and given the chunks of money we have invested in this place, but they have barred us from entering,” he said.
“They are simply talking to the Leader of the Opposition through a small window and they have heavily deployed Police and the Army, which makes me wonder if there are minerals being mined in this place. Because if you look at the situation on ground where even the local residents are arrested for merely passing by these premises, we wondered where our country is headed to,” he added.
Addressing journalists, Ssenyonyi said: “We came to do our work and we are waiting for the people responsible to open the gate for us, so that we enter & we investigate what is taking place. This is an installation to the Ministry of Health, what they are meant to do is to keep peace and order as well as provide security to us, but we don’t want the Police security because we are safe, but if they want, they can give us the security and they also witness what is taking place because Police officers are also taxpayers and in case they fall sick, the hospital will also help them.”
In 2019, Parliament approved a loan guarantee of Shs1.4 trillion to Finasi/Roko, a special purpose vehicle (SPV) for the construction of the hospital.
The project has, however, recorded setbacks with the SPV Finasi/ROKO falling apart following the introduction of another player, a Chinese firm, Power China Guizhou Engineering Co. Ltd as the civil works contractor.
Since then, there have not been major works at the facility.