Medical interns arrested for protesting over non-deployment
A group of medical interns in Uganda was arrested by the police yesterday Monday 15th May 2023 for planning a march to the office of the President to express their dissatisfaction with the government’s failure to deploy them. The interns claim that they have been trying to engage with relevant authorities but have not received a satisfactory response.
Uganda Police arrested a group of pre-medical interns, who were planning to march to the office of the President to express their dissatisfaction over non-deployment, by government yesterday Monday 15th May 2023.
The doctors were picked by the field force unit officers from the dean’s gardens inside the College of health sciences at Mulago, where they intended to speak to the media. They have been waiting for deployment for 9 months now.
The interns, who were carrying placards with protest messages, were intercepted to hold media briefing at dean’s gardens inside the College of health sciences at Mulago, and later march to Parliament and the President’s office, where they planned to hand over petitions detailing their grievances.
“We graduated last year, and we are supposed to enrol for a compulsory medical internship but it’s unfair that the government is keeping us home for more than a year,” Ms Judith Nalukwago, a member of Uganda Pre-medical Interns Association, she said.
The interns graduated last year and are required to undertake a compulsory one-year medical internship before they register to legally practice medicine, dentistry, pharmacy, nursing and midwifery.
Ms Nalukwago said they had been engaging the relevant authorities in vain.
“You (Ministry of Health) said you don’t have money, but it is being put to waste. Why do you want to post us in farthest areas such as Kotido without accommodation, meals and transport, yet you want us to work for 24 hours a day?” she asked.
The Kampala Metropolitan Police deputy spokesperson, Mr Luke Owoyesigire, yesterday confirmed that the group had been detained on allegations of holding unlawful assembly.
The arrest came two weeks after the first protest where three medical interns were arrested.
On March 31, the Ministry of Health, through Dr Henry Mwebesa, the country’s Director General of Health Services, in a letter to the interns, said the delays were as a result of ongoing detailed consultations with various stakeholders.
Earlier this month, the Ministry of Health, through its spokesperson Emmanuel Ainebyoona, said they were finalising plans to have the interns deployed.
