DENIED! Government responds to calls by residents to declare Njeru part of Jinja as Covid19 inter-district travel ban bites

Residents of Njeru Municipality in Buikwe District who had petitioned President Museveni to declare the area as part of Jinja for purposes of easy movements to and from work should continue observing the directive on inter-district movements awaiting a response from the president in subsequent addresses, deputy Presidential Press Secretary Faruk Kirunda has told The Pearl Times News desk.

As a result of the presidential directive to ban all inter-district travels which came into effect on Friday, the people of Njeru, some of whom work in Jinja, are stuck after security barred them from crossing the Nile Bridge to their workplaces.

They had thus sought the President’s intervention to grant them unconditional inter-district travel rights between Jinja and Buikwe.

This, the residents argued, would allow them access food and services for themselves and families.

In response, however, Kirunda said the presidential directive has to be observed by all without any exceptions until the head-of-state comes out to pronounce otherwise.

“For now, the residents should follow the [inter-district travel ban] directive strictly just like the rest of the country,” Kirunda told Pearl Times News.

He admitted that the changes would adversely impact people’s livelihoods but added that it is a worthy sacrifice in light of the surge in coronavirus infections.

In a separate interview, Kirunda rallied the public against seeking unnecessary travel permissions to Kampala Metropolitan areas on the pretext of searching for expert medical treatment.

He says the public should make use of both government and private medical facilities in their respective districts to avoid accessing the highly voronavirus- infested city area.