UGANDA COULD EASILY HAVE 2020 AND 2021 THE WORST YEARS IN RECENT HISTORY

The COVID - 19 developments worldwide have hit Uganda so badly given that many of the people in the country have no savings worth mention nor income earning assets.

The 2020 lockdown left many Ugandans without jobs, even those surviving on handouts from relatives outside Uganda were badly affected as many in the Diaspora lost jobs and many have since come back to Uganda. Even those depending locally on support by relatives were badly impacted in that many have since registered power standards of living.

School going children / students who are not in candidate classes will have been home for a year by 12th March when they were told to go home.

We are aware, the economy has not recovered. During the lockdown, many in agriculture and animal husbandry registered low returns given the low prices of what they had to offer. A tray of 30 eggs which was at shs 10,000 or more before the lockdown reached the low of shs 6,000 yet the prices of foodstuffs remained high.

Those in Bars and entertainment industry are still under lockdown. Many of these are struggling in other areas to survive. The curfew in place which starts at 9.00pm to 5.00am has negatively greatly impacted incomes of people who under normal circumstances work during the curfew hours.

The regulation in place that require PSV (vehicles) which serve as taxis as well as the buses to take half capacity has made transport costs double to the users of these means of transport.

The private schools have had teachers with no income from the schools. It will soon be a year. The schools which rent premises are going through very difficult time as well as those that have bank loans to service.

While the income to the country is at its lowest with areas like OTT not active for 20 days today and continuing, it is sad to learn that some people are throwing the country into very uncertain times when they warn of a country lockdown following dissatisfaction following the results from the Presidential polls. Those behind Engineering the country’s lockdown are likely to cause more suffering to many Ugandans. Service delivery is likely to be very bad, and this is likely to continue on as long as the country remains in such uncertainty.