By Mulengera Reporters
On Friday, the Mulago Hospital Executive Director Dr. Rosemary Byanyima convened a news conference to respond to what Justice Irene Mulyagonja had said to hundreds of mourners on Tuesday at Rubaga Cathedral as the body of her fallen husband JB Kakooza was being prayed for.
She castigated Mulago Hospital making it clear that medics in its premier ward, 6B, let them down and diminished chances of their patient to make it. He succumbed to stroke among other health complications.
Mulyagonja, whose boldness and eloquence many Ugandans celebrated on social media while fearing she might be poisoned or made to lose her job in retribution against her truth-telling, complained of neglect by the medics and failure to access basic services such as NG tubes through which her husband required to feed, CBC testing services and insulin. She described Mulago as a mere monument and not the National Referral Hospital it claims to be anymore.
She asked all Ugandans to pay attention to the clear collapse of the country’s public health system which she demonstrated had become extortionist, tired, weak and inefficient. In saying all these things, Mulyagonja epitomized frustrations faced daily by millions of Ugandans.
By attacking a system many Ugandans have grievances against, Mulyagonja became an instant hero for thousands of Ugandans on social media. The clarity with which she spoke made many Ugandans proud and to feel vindicated. Many felt their grievances had been articulated. Some leveraged the same to remind that even the Judiciary where she serves as a Judge is equally rotten, corrupt, indifferent and inefficient.
Eminent Ugandan Allan Kasujja, who works with the BBC in London, was among those who celebrated Mulyagonja on X. Bobi Wine did the same, amplifying the clear message contained in Irene Mulyagonja’s video. Kasujja, like Bobi Wine, made it clear that he too had previously raised a red flag about the situation at Uganda’s public hospitals but he was disregarded.
Byanyima used her press conference to contradict the picture Mulyagonja had painted about Mulago Hospital. She explained that the deceased Kakooza’s family members and attendants were paranoid and didn’t cooperate enough with the medical teams.
Byanyima said there was no lack of NG tubes or even insulin at Mulago Hospital at any one moment except that Kakooza’s caretakers took long to accept the same being administered onto their patient.
She admitted that there are funding problems which have continued to constrain Mulago’s efficiency. She asserted that they aren’t getting even 40% of their budgetary requirements being met which constrains their ability to recruit adequate medical personnel and the required medical supplies and equipment.
Ugandans seized on all this to have Dr. Rosemary Byanyima for dinner and going by exchanges on social media, her Friday news conference didn’t diminish public support and belief in what Mulyagonja said. Social media users are saying Byanyima should have leveraged what Mulyagonja said and rally the public opinion to pressurize President Museveni and Parliament to avail more funding for Mulago to be the National Referral Hospital it ideally ought to be.
Some are saying that, instead of being defensive, Dr. Byanyima ought to have commended Mulyagonja for articulating the situation at Mulago and other public health facilities across the country for what it is. Some defended Byanyima saying that blaming Mulago Hospital leadership alone would be simplistic because the situation is barely any better elsewhere at other public health facilities across the country.
Some are of the view that President Museveni should mobilize another Shs100m and give each MP so that Parliament becomes motivated to vote in favor of more money being allocated to Mulago Hospital and the entire health sector so that medical services delivery gets better.
The MPs are the most castigated in the comments sections and all this is indicative of the extent to which many of them are going to be voted out come 2026. Some social media users have fallaciously also re-invigorated the debate on Westerners occupying apex positions at many public institutions, including Mulago. Yet the truth is that even if the Executive Director wasn’t a Munyankole, service delivery at Mulago will only get better if the funding crisis at Mulago gets mitigated.
Some social media users, in the comments section, defended Mulago making it clear there are departments and units which are excellent like the ENT clinic. Others commended Uganda Heart Institute with some giving personal testimonies about having their health conditions successful mitigated and their life fully restored. This category also testified about the good care and general welfare they received while at UHI, including being given good meals, all free of charge.
All this notwithstanding, majority are still standing in solidarity with Mulyagonja while thanking her for the truthfulness and boldness with which she spoke. Some have gone as far as using the social media space to narrate how they lost their loved ones in JB Kakooza-like circumstances; implying indifference and pride among Mulago medical teams.
Some have suggested that what Mulyagonja narrated is the reason why all Ugandans must unanimously embrace Bobi Wine’s Protest Vote movement and use the 2026 elections to vote out Gen Museveni’s political system which has become weak, unresponsive and inefficient so that Uganda’s governance and service delivery problem is solved once and for all.
Other Ugandan social media users have leveraged the debate Mulyagonja ignited to castigate Parliament for blindly passing trillions of shillings in favor of the obscure specialized hospital project at Lubowa instead of prioritizing struggling public health facilities like Mulago. (For comments on this story, get back to us on 0705579994 [WhatsApp line], 0779411734 & 041 4674611 or email us at mulengeranews@gmail.com).
