Museveni received the first jab of the COVID-19 AstraZeneca vaccine with his wife Janet Museveni on Saturday, joining world leaders like Joe Biden, Uhuru Kenyatta and Paul Kagame who have been vaccinated.
The President of Uganda and his First Lady Janet Museveni received their first jab of the COVID-19 vaccine from AstraZeneca on Saturday. They joined other world leaders such as Joe Biden, Uhuru Kenyatta and Paul Kagame.
- Museveni and his wife, Janet, received their first jab of the COVID-19 AstraZeneca vaccine.
- The two join world leaders like Joe Biden and Uhuru Kenyatta.
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Museveni, who was the first to make the announcement took to his social media handle to urge Ugandans to come out and allow themselves to be vaccinated.
“First Lady Janet Museveni and I received Covid-19 vaccines today in Nakasero. I urge all Ugandans to go to health centres and get this vaccination, but heed the guidelines of the Standard Operating Procedures to avoid further outbreaks,” Museveni said.
The 75-year-old President had earlier in the month said he was undecided on which COVID-19 vaccines he would use to protect himself against coronavirus. He had said his ‘people are still studying’ which vaccines would protect him.
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Some of the first people to receive the COVID-19 vaccine in most African countries and around the world have been the nation’s top leaders in order to give confidence to their people amid fears, myths, and misconceptions surrounding the vaccine.
Now that they have been vaccinated, an earlier article published in Daily Monitor stated the president and his inner circle had already been vaccinated for the virus carries no more meaning.
Museveni sues Daily Monitor
Monitor Publications, quoting an article from the Wall Street Journal, wrote that China’s Sinopharm COVID-19 vaccinations were administered to State House representatives months before it was announced available to health workers and the teachers.
The article quoted: “People close to President Museveni have reportedly received jabs of China Sinopharm COVID-19 vaccine months ahead of health workers and vulnerable groups.”
At his Women’s Day speech on March 08, Museveni said the article was falsely written. He threatened to bankrupt the media organization unless they apologized.
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Last week, Museveni, through his lawyers, filed documents seeking compensation for the defamation of his name.
Museveni wrote in his letter that the contested article was maliciously and without due care published next to a factual story, “China gave Uganda 300,000 doses of COVID-19 vaccine”, with his photo and a visiting Chinese official.
The President noted that it was done to give further attention to the article. He alleged that even when they consulted his press secretary and Health Ministry spokesperson, they still published the article despite dismissing it as false.
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Furthermore, his lawyers confirmed that the article depicted the President of the Republic of Uganda as dishonest because he used his power as President to obtain the COVID-19 vaccine months before vulnerable health workers did.
They also said the article depicted Museveni as someone who engages in dishonest activities of influence peddling and nepotism.
“It was understood to mean that the plaintiff has abdicated his duties and obligations to frontline health workers fighting COVID-19 and other groups that are vulnerable to the pandemic. The plaintiff cannot be trusted with the high office of the President of the Republic of Uganda,” the lawyers noted.
“The defamatory statements were widely circulated by the respondents among the public in Uganda and intentionally through the monitor online edition and the Monitor Twitter and Facebook accounts reaching millions of people to shun him.”
Further, Museveni has asked the court to make seven orders, including one ordering Daily Monitor Publication to remove the offending article online and publish an apology to him on all its platforms with the same prominence as the offending article and posts and with wordings agreed in advance by him.
He also requests the court to issue an injunction prohibiting the media organization from publishing defamatory words ever against him.
