ILL-HEALTH
I do not know when stigma started getting attached to illness, but it is such a long tradition. Our societies have always been inclined towards celebrating health and casting out ill health, mostly due to the burden illness brings to society. African societies have a largely underdeveloped concept of illness such that they tend to cluster afflictions of the body and mind in the mystic realms. Diseases and illness are explained away as bad air, curses, spells, works of witchcraft, or displeasure from the hereafter – spirits of the dead. Typically, illnesses have been treated with herbs, sometimes with fresh air and often death from preventable conditions formed the continuum of care.
For Museveni, like most strong men who have ruled spaces and places before him, his health or wellbeing have been for a long time, equated with strength – physical and mental strength - his power and control.
Through those turbulent times of HIV/AIDS, I recall Mr. Museveni rebuking the population for living recklessly. One day in the 90s, just after Philly Bongoley Lutaaya (RIP) announced his serostatus to the world, Mr. Museveni went on TV and blamed Ugandans for pocking their fingers in some holes in the ground, well knowing that snakes and other harmful elements resided in those holes. I think this is a Kinyankore proverb or local scene.
Mr. Museveni cut himself a public image of perfectionism, being frugal, careful, and healthy. He was infallible, indispensable, near immortal. In the middle of the pandemic, when his forces cruelly locked up Ugandans in slums and mizigos, a beaming Museveni jogged and pushed up in the large reception space of the statehouse.
It is such public image and persona that makes the population get mixed reactions when Museveni says he is eventually unwell. Many have shown concern about his left hand which seems to be in a bad state, but he often downplays it.
I think it is alright for our leaders to fall sick and recover. Leaders who do not experience ill health tend not to have a full range of the daily experiences of their subjects. You hardly hear Museveni visit a hospital in Uganda if he is not commissioning a building. Museveni has never condemned the failing state of the public healthcare system or the horrible experiences that Ugandans get in these hospitals.
Museveni and his family for sure get ill occasionally. Even if they keep it away from the public eye, I am sure that someone in their circle gets ill. It is also a common practice that they may prefer to fly abroad to give birth or treat their ailments. All, in masking that they are never indisposed.
I have spent many years studying healthcare systems around the world, and I can still state without a contradiction that the architectural setup of Uganda’s healthcare system is one of the most elaborate that I know. It is how the government operates or allows the system to be run down, that attests to the attitude our privileged and financially secured leaders afford to matters of our health. They evade the system by pretending not to get ill.
If our leaders felt sick more often and sought treatment in Uganda, or in their constituencies, we could have agreed by now, to adopt a first-class universal healthcare system. The body breaks down quite often in the pursuit of survival in this modern capitalist economy. The state should commit to supporting its citizens to recuperate back into the economy once broken down with afflictions. There are more advantages of a universal healthcare system that we should explore.
A healthy population is the greatest asset of any nation. Of course, I am always quick to elaborate on the difference between health and healthcare. While I privilege health above all, healthcare access is a right that all citizens including our leaders, must access when needed.
End.
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