Uganda’s Health Ministry has broken silence and clarified on claims that over 2,000 doses of COVID-19 vaccines were sold to city tycoon, Ham Kiggundu to vaccinate his workers and tenants.

The Daily Monitor on Monday morning wrote an article titled, “Covid-19 vaccines ‘sold’ to city trader secretly in which the newspaper claimed that the Health Ministry had given Hamis Kiggundu 2,000 doses of the scarce Covid-19 vaccines to immunize his tenants and workers, barely two weeks after the businessman donated Shs530 million to bolster the government’s pandemic response.

In response, to Daily Monitor’s story, the Ministry of Health has clarified that due to the lockdown, there has been a general low turn up for vaccination at KCCA (Kampala Capital City Authority) which prompted the Ministry to adjust the vaccination rollout plan and allocate more vaccines to Wakiso District where most of the people in Kampala reside.

In response to the misinforming article published by @DailyMonitor, the @MinofHealthUG like to categorically state as follows:
Due to the lockdown, there has been a general low turn up for vaccination in @KCCAUG. This prompted MOH to adjust the vaccination rollout plan /1 pic.twitter.com/skbPokXyVP

— Ministry of Health- Uganda (@MinofHealthUG) July 19, 2021

The Ministry says that on this Background, Tycoon Hamis Kiggundu popularly known as Ham on July 3rd, 2021, volunteered to mobilize eligible people among the business community for vaccination by transporting them and ensuring that all COVID-19 SOPs are fully adhered to.

“This act of kindness to support the COVID-19 vaccination exercise is in no way linked to the donation that he offered. It should be noted that Mr. Kiggundu’s contribution will be merged with the efforts of Government to procure additional vaccines, a process that is underway,” the Health Ministry said.

The Ministry reiterated that similar vaccination outreach exercises have been carried out at various office premises that include; Uganda Revenue Authority (URA), Inspectorate of Government (IG), Uganda National Oil Company (UNOC) among others.

“The Ministry would like to emphasize that all COVID-19 vaccines administered in Uganda are FREE of CHARGE,” it added.

“Dr. Alfred Driwale, the Head of Immunization programme at the Ministry of Health told Daily Monitor last Thursday that they were racing to exhaust the doses at hand and that Mr. Kiggundu happened to present an organized group of people,” part of the article in the story claimed.

Uganda is moving to procure 12,274,400 vaccines that include; AstraZeneca, Johnson and Johnson and Sinovac.

The Government plans to vaccinate at least 21 million people before it can fully lift the lockdown.