The Forum for Democratic Change-FDC party has welcomed President Yoweri Museveni’s decision to partially lift the lockdown imposed on the country on June 18, but called on the President to reopen places of worship and schools.
While lifting the lockdown, President Museveni said places of worship will remain closed for another 60 days when the order would be reviewed. For schools, Museveni said, they will remain under key and lock at least until students aged between 12 and 18 have been vaccinated.
While speaking to journalists at the party’s headquarters in Kampala, FDC spokesperson, Ssemujju Ibrahim Nganda, says that the fact that markets remained fully functional and there were no known pikes in infections or deaths is testimony that lockdowns alone can’t explain the reduction in causes.
In last week’s zoom session titled ‘Protecting Freedom of Worship: Reflections on closure of places of worship during Covid-19,’ five panelists calling themselves defenders of religion reasoned that the closure of places of worship amounts to infringement of the citizens’ rights to worship as provided for in the Constitution.
The Constitution of Uganda
“Article 23 of the Constitution talks about the need to resist anyone who violates the Constitution. Let’s help each other and recognise that what is going on is a violation of the right to religion,”
“In Uganda Many people don’t have access to television sets or the Internet to follow church online since that is the only way church is being conducted. Those are the people we are talking about,”
By Hillary
