The “Kisanja No More Sleep” campaign launched by the His Excellency, from his inauguration to his speech at the recent reading of Uganda’s 2026/2027 national budget directed an end of complacency, corruption and delayed action/inaction/ unnecessary delayed action in public service which is optimistic on the strict implementation and measurable results.
The Appropriation Act of Uganda as of 2026 is an essential piece of legislation and is passed annually by the Parliament of Uganda. This Act goes ahead to authorize the Government of Uganda to withdraw public funds from the consolidated fund to finance its National Budget, recurrent expenditures and public services as guaranteed by the Constitution of the Republic of Uganda, 1995.
The Government, through its budget, has allocated Shs 5.23 trillion to the health sector in Financial Year 2026/2027. This funding focuses on maternal and child health, nutrition improvement, expanded immunization, and the prevention and treatment of non-communicable diseases.
Further to this, the fund will make provision of essential medicines, the strengthening of specialized health care services, the improvement of emergency response systems, and exploration of feasible pathways toward universal health coverage.
If we can retrace our history, medical interns previously earned 800,000/= as before 2021 and were meant to start earning Shs 2.5 million as through the July 2021 presidential directive, which was half of the recommended starting salary of fully appointed medical officers.
We have learnt and believe that the directives made by the President are never made in vain. Through the eyes of His Excellency, he viewed and still views the role of these medical interns as a critical bridge between medical school and full medical licensure.
These medical interns, who are junior doctors are mandated to provide essential frontline clinical services such as taking patient histories, making diagnoses and performing procedures under the instructions of the doctors, and most times in their absence with the sole Bonafide purpose of offering timely health relief.
To bring this into context, the role of medical interns in the Ugandan health sector is multi-faceted and heavily relied upon by the government in offering frontline service delivery, clinical duties, surgical and maternity care to mention but a few.
As a requirement for a license and qualification of a medical intern in Uganda, they are required to attend a mandatory 12 month (1 year) internship to become a medical, dental, pharmacy and nursing licensed practitioner.
The Constitution of the Republic of Uganda, 1995 has championed the protection against slavery and servitude by anyone together with the emphasis of the enjoyment of economic rights. Slavery speaks to the forced work of someone without fair compensation.
This state of lifelessness strips individuals of basic human rights, often enforcing total control over their labor, movement and lives. Through this, individuals lose autonomy over their lives since their personal freedom, legal and economic rights are done away with.
The Constitution then comes in further to ensure that no person, body or authority shall derogate from the enjoyment of the freedom from slavery and servitude in Uganda.
The same position is emphasized in the Human Rights (Enforcement) Act which makes it an offence for a person to derogate from a non-derogable right and freedom guaranteed under the Constitution.
So, anyone who derogates or perpetrates the derogation of the non-derogable rights commits an offense. The right to health remains a fundamental human right that entitles everyone to the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health.
This includes access to timely, acceptable and affordable healthcare of appropriate quality, as well as healthy working conditions. A medical intern in Uganda that doesn’t receive the bare minimum financial requirements shall not only fail to meet their day-to-day livelihood necessities but also shall not be motivated enough to offer his medical expertise to all the patients seeking medical attention.
The government presenting the view of reconsidering the stand on the new health training policy presents the right to proper, prior and timely medical health and care as an option and not as a necessity as it ought to be for the greater Uganda.
The casual conduct by the Minister of Health and his subordinates in this very precarious state of affairs is very loud and alarming which if not dealt with yesterday shall cause a foreseen eventuality.
The author is a concerned citizen.