Unvaccinated MPs, staff and visitors blocked from parliament premises

Deputy Speaker of Parliament Anita Among has directed Clerk to Parliament to implement with the immediate effect her earlier directive, to ensure that everyone who comes to Parliament presents a Covid vaccination card.

“You are hereby informed that with effect on Monday, November 1, 2021, access to parliamentary precincts will be restricted to only those that have been vaccinated against Covid,” a notice to all MPs by the Clerk to Parliament reads in part.

According to the notice, in a bid to control the spread of the virus and ensure other members of the public get vaccinated, there is need for Members of Parliament to lead by example and that by locking those who are not vaccinated out of the precincts of the August House, authorities aim at demonstrating support to government’s public health strategy.

“The president in his address to the nation on Thursday, October 28 on the state of the fight against Covid emphasized the need to have as many Ugandans as possible vaccinated as a strategy to control the spread of the pandemic which is essential for the total reopening of the economy,” the Clerk told MPs.

“The office of the Speaker is in agreement with the president’s observation and in the communication of the Deputy Speaker, at the sitting of Parliament on Thursday, October, 28, 2021, she gave a directive that access to the precincts of Parliament should be restricted to Members of Parliament, staff and visitors that will show proof of vaccination against Covid.”

The development means that access to Parliament by anyone, including MP, staff and visitors has been barred for those who are not vaccinated for Covid.

Among urged the MPs and staff to take the COVID jabs seriously and encourage vaccination across the country and that’s the only way they can be exemplary as leaders.

Parliament becomes the third government institution to ban unvaccinated people from accessing its premises. The Ministry of Health and National Medical Stores already announced the move.

In his recent address, Museveni said that by January 2022, Uganda will have vaccinated about 12 million people hence the economy will be fully reopened.