But as fate would have it, amidst CHOGM preparations, there came an epidemic. Our great leaders feared they would lose the ‘golden chance’ (as referred to by Foreign Affairs Minister, Sam Kutesa) of hosting CHOGM if they announced what deadly disease had hit the country. Then, they wisely or rather foolishly named it a ‘mysterious disease’. But this ‘mysterious disease’ killed 13 people and left 43 dead – that was just for a start. Its name changed from ‘mysterious disease’ and it was mistaken for Marburg hemorrhagic fever. Some claimed it had symptoms similar to leptospirosis which results from contacts with rodents and finally, it was suspected to be typhus fever. While those responsible were busy making all suspicions, the effects of the epidemic were slowly threatening the stability of districts of Bundibugyo; where it originated, Mbarara, Bushenyi, Mubende, Fort Portal and Kasese. By the time all these symptoms were combined to baptize the disease ‘Ebola’, more lives had been consumed and many more infected.

But what did it take to find this new name? Samples of blood had to be sent to the Centre for Disease Control (CDC) in Atlanta, Georgia, USA before it was publicly confirmed that Ebola had hit Uganda the second time. If you may recall, this terrible disease hit the country in 2000 and among the dead is Dr. Mathew Lukwiya. Isn’t it amazing or may be disappointing that seven years after that, Uganda was still not prepared to handle a similar outbreak? We still stretched hands to beg for stumps from the US and this time, it came in form of an Ebola detecting machine that is now installed at the Uganda Virus Research Institute.

Uganda smilingly spent more than $150m and successfully hosted CHOGM despite protests from the Opposition. But donors want accountability for the funds spent during CHOGM. Many had expected to make thousands if not millions from the sales they would make during CHOGM but reports have it that they sold literally nothing. Instead, shortly after CHOGM, these sales men and women were rewarded with news of deaths of Dr. Jonah Kule, a doctor from Bundibugyo who succumbed to the jaws of Ebola while at Mulago Hospital, Nurses: Rose Bulimpikya and Peluce Tabiita who also lost their lives because of handling Ebola patients without the necessary kits. By Friday last week, it was confirmed that the disease had not only brought the cumulative total of the dead to 25 but also infected 116 people.

As if the country was not shocked enough, His Excellency bombed the public with an announcement that sounds like an echo but being heard from a far. His plane has to be replaced!! And it will cost 60billion shillings for this new ‘bird’ to be purchased. I am not a mathematician but I would love to know how many women’s lives such an amount would save if directed to improving maternal health. Or better still, why can’t we stem our begging skills and invest at least half of such an amount into providing AIDS patients with ARVs? Why must such money be spent on luxuries such as a flying gadget while the country cries of lack of condoms? I hear someone talk of the diminishing UPE system that keeps our ears fixed to the same political statement ‘Look what am doing for you’.

Oooohhh, but how could I, in a manner likely to suggest that am against the regime forget to add that 6billion shillings was directed towards handling the Ebola epidemic? Must I, however, wait for a slap before I remind you that money, regardless of how much it is will not return the lives of the health officials that are now gone, soften the difficult lives that dependants of the deceased have been left to encounter or even restore the relationships that have been destroyed between friends and family members who isolated their own in fear of contracting the disease? How much more must we lose before we act, just how much?