Under normal circumstances, and considering the health-services-related challenges the people in Buyende district face on a daily basis, a donation of an ambulance is supposed to attract rapturous ululations.
However, this is turning out not to be the case after the minister for presidency, Babirye Milly Babalanda, donated one such ‘brand-new’ ambulance to Kidera Health Center, Buyende District, on 2nd April 2025.
The minister’s plan is that the ambulance enhances local health services in the constituency; however, what ideally is her good gesture and good will has received resistance from some members of the community.
A resident in Kidera Town Council said, “People are saying an ambulance is not among the critical challenges Kidera Health Centre IV faces; the issues that need to be addressed are elevating it to a substantive health IV because it’s still registered as health center 3 by the government.”
Adding, “Then there is a need for enough human resources and more wards because as of now both men and women share one ward.”
Voices from Kidera and across Buyende are saying the minister doesn’t know the problems affecting the people because she is a foreigner. And now, it seems that the ambulance is adding another problem to the many problems the minister is struggling to solve.
The problems stem from Babalanda’s tumultuous political ambition in her adopted district. She has expressed interest in standing for Member of Parliament in the Budiope West constituency.
Budiope West rejects Babalanda
The minister’s political ambitions in Budiope have been hard hit. Around this time last year, ahead of the Women’s Day celebration at Iringa Primary School in Nkondo sub-country, youths organised peaceful protestations rejecting her political aspirations in Budiope West.
The youthful protestors reasoned that Babalanda, who hails from Kamuli, cannot stand for political office in Buyende as if Buyende doesn’t have educated and able indigenous persons to stand for these political offices.
The day ended with a sizeable number of youth arrested and detained at Buyende Central Police stations for days allegedly under the orders of the minister. This didn’t go down well with the voters in the constituency who questioned the minister’s intentions.
Ever since, Babalanda or her agents have received hostile receptions at public meetings, especially burial ceremonies. It, therefore, comes as no surprise when some people soundly rejected the idea of the ambulance, arguing that it wasn’t their immediate health-related problem.
The problematic ambulance
Embarking on its maiden voyage in the constituency, like the Titanic did on the calm Atlantic Ocean before picking a knock with the iceberg, the ambulance landed into problems when it picked up nails that tore its tyres, prompting it into an undesired stop.
Babalanda’s camp believes that these nails were intentionally planted by the anti-Babalanda crusaders who want to fail the minister in her political ambition to conquer Budiope West.
Like it is every time the minister is challenged in the constituency, someone or some people end up being arrested by the police. Following the launch of the ambulance on Wednesday, police have reportedly arrested a young man going by his moniker Commander Sande.
Speculators in Buyende are saying that Sande and others on the run, and being hunted by the police, are being accused of deliberately planting the nails that endangered the ambulance. The truth in these allegations are issues the police can handle through thorough investigations.
