Museveni has set record of jiggers - Besigye

This year, Uganda made global headlines for all the wrong reasons --the jigger infestation that ruptured Busoga and other parts of the country. John Augustine Emojong & Gerald Bareebe report in this Daily Monitor article that president Museveni deserves a place in the Guinness World Books of Records for presiding over  jiggers! 

Presidential candidate Kizza Besigye has said President Museveni’s regime will enter in the Guinness Book of World Records as the first government in the 21st century to have set up a ministerial committee to tackle jigger infestation.

“There is no doubt that Museveni has made a record as the only President to have set up a ministerial committee on jiggers,” Dr Besigye told a rally in Tororo Town on Tuesday.

“His regime will enter the Guinness Book of Records for that. You do not need a ministers’ committee to oversee the exercise of spraying peoples’ legs. The problem of jiggers is a manifestation of the high levels of poverty that majority of Ugandan in the countryside are experiencing,” Dr Besigye said.

“You cannot be in power for 25 years and your people are dying of jiggers but you still gather the energy to move around bragging that you are the President of Uganda, the commander in chief and you do not feel ashamed.”

The Inter-Party Cooperation flag bearer asked residents of Tororo District to vote out President Museveni whom he accused of living an extravagant life as majority of Ugandans were dying because of poverty and jiggers.

He said mass poverty, corruption, unexplained opulence, bribery, and poor infrastructure characterises the lifestyle of Mr Museveni’s ministers and other “well-connected” individuals in his government.

Dr Besigye said if elected, he will sell the Shs84 billion presidential jet and use the proceeds to set up a new development project to fight poverty.