At least half of the 42 Heads of Estate invited by President Yoweri Museveni will not be attending his inauguration ceremony slated for 12 May, according to the Minister for Presidency Esther Mbayo.
Mbayo, on Tuesday 4 May said that 21 Heads of State both from Africa and around the world had confirmed their attendence out of the 42 invited leaders.
Due to the COVID-19 threat, Mbayo says that this time round, only 4000 guests have been invited for the function to be held at Kololo Independence grounds on May 12, just over a week after Uganda confirmed its first Indian Covid-19 variant B.1.617.
‘’All invited guests will undergo Covid-19 tests. The National Organizing Committee has done all necessary measures to sit guests in such a manner that there will be proper social distancing,’’ she said.
Museveni won a sixth successive term in the Jan 14 polls, with the opposition led by National Unity Platform leader Robert Kyagulanyi Ssentamu protesting it’s outcome.
The highly contested electoral process was marred with violence and gross human rights violations in form of arbitrary arrests and abductions, violence against opposition leaders and their supporters.
Following the arrest of Bobi Wine in the Eastern District of Luuka on November 18, at least 54 people were killed in a clash between opposition protesters and government security forces.
This according to Bobi Wine clearly robbed the electoral process of it’s credence and rendered the outcome ” unacceptable”
Mbayo however argues that the short falls in the process should be excusable for there is no any democracy in the world that’s 100% perfect.
‘’Where we have fallen short in our management of the electoral processes as government, we have put on all remedies and moved forward. No country under the sun has achieved 100% perfection in democracy,’’ Ms Mbayo remarked.
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