Uganda: VP, Health Minister To ‘Reverse’ Museveni’s Decision On Paying Medical Interns
By Black Star News Photos: YouTube Screenshots Whereas Uganda’s 2026/2027 National Budget unveiled on June 11 deliberately left out the pricky issue of paying medical interns, the health minister says Government of Uganda must continue sponsoring medical interns. “I am going to engage the president and re-table this before cabinet because my honest view is that we must continue to sponsor medical interns. So, I am going to engage the president that we must find money for the interns,” Dr Chris Baryomunsi told the premium political accountability Capital Radio talk show, The Capital Gang in Kampala on June 13. “Our view as new ministers for health is that we should find money for medical interns,” Dr Baryomunsi, who is deputized by yet another medical Dr Francis Ayume, in Gen Yoweri Museveni’s seventh term cabinet announced on May 16, said. The health ministry, if not reshuffled, but funded and allowed to run as currently constituted, is seen as exuding vibrancy and competence of medical doctors, including the permanent secretary in Dr Diana Atwine; capable of health service delivery to the citizenry. Medical interns are doctors, pharmacists, dentists, mid-wives and nurses who will have completed studies in their various disciplines and only required to undergo a one-year apprenticeship so as to be granted practicing certificates by their governing medical and dental bodies. Museveni had promised to pay medical interns Shs 2.5 million (nearly US$694) monthly. But to the interns’ utter dismay, that amount was ruthlessly trimmed to Shs1 million (about US$278), and now eventually scrapped altogether. It all started in August 2024 when Museveni told medical interns that their various sponsors should continue catering for their internship allowances as government does not have money to cater for their internship. But much as medical interns are not reflected in the new budget which takes effect on July 1, Vice President Jessica Alupo told Parliament on June 10 that laws are not cast in stone; that cabinet is going back to the drawing board. According to Alupo, Cabinet will hold discussions on the proposed Medical Education and Internship Policy following which the Health minister will later present a statement to the august House on the way forward. “We are talking about the positive impact of the deliberate channeling of resources to the human resource development of our country. We can definitely review this policy,” Alupo told Parliament on June 10. “Uganda is talking of regional integration where we are talking of harmonizing medical internship where an intern from Uganda can go and do medical internship in Kenya, Tanzania… I am sorry, our president is the champion of this regional integration…Therefore, Uganda should not be doing a contradictory thing,” the past-immediate junior health minister in-charge of primary health care, Dr Joyce Moriku Kaducu, told Kampala-based Kfm radio talk show program, VPN on June 13. The current budget is said to be riddled with so many wants; rather than addressing needs like allowances for medical interns who provide not an ordinary labour, but necessary medical services supplementing the work of the overstretched medical personnel in the health system. “Sometimes they [medical interns] work 36 hours, other times they work for 48 hours, non-stop; to take care of the people of Uganda. Government has historically facilitated them to do this work,” Leader of the Opposition in Parliament, Joel Senyonyi, told the august House on June 10. Senyonyi worries how the medical interns will have to facilitate themselves and be expected to show up for work. He called on government to urgently look into the matter and emphasized that money can be got to pay medical interns. The LoP explained that medical interns support the medical personnel in the largely ailing government health facilities. “[And it’s a] very difficult course; medical is not an easy course. So, I think we should pay them…And I think what Uganda should be doing is to export these people. Let’s export medical tourism [like Cuba does]. And of all, these people are youth. Let’s not go wrong on the youth,” lawyer, MP and newly-appointed junior Public Service minister, Lydia Wanyoto-Mutende, said on Capital Gang, June 13. However, it remains to be seen if the vice president and her ministers will succeed in overturning Museveni’s decision because when Parliament appropriated money for the purchase of ambulances in government-run health facilities in the 2024/2025 budget, a querulous Museveni angrily told Parliament not to tamper with “my budget”. He ordered the ambulances monies reverted to Roko; a private construction company allegedly with unclear ownership.
Black News 
By Black Star News
Photos: YouTube Screenshots
Whereas Uganda’s 2026/2027 National Budget unveiled on June 11 deliberately left out the pricky issue of paying medical interns, the health minister says Government of Uganda must continue sponsoring medical interns. “I am going to engage the president and re-table this before cabinet because my honest view is that we must continue to sponsor medical interns. So, I am going to engage the president that we must find money for the interns,” Dr Chris Baryomunsi told the premium political accountability Capital Radio talk show, The Capital Gang in Kampala on June 13. “Our view as new ministers for health is that we should find money for medical interns,” Dr Baryomunsi, who is deputized by yet another medical Dr Francis Ayume, in Gen Yoweri Museveni’s seventh term cabinet announced on May 16, said. The health ministry, if not reshuffled, but funded and allowed to run as currently constituted, is seen as exuding vibrancy and competence of medical doctors, including the permanent secretary in Dr Diana Atwine; capable of health service delivery to the citizenry.
Medical interns are doctors, pharmacists, dentists, mid-wives and nurses who will have completed studies in their various disciplines and only required to undergo a one-year apprenticeship so as to be granted practicing certificates by their governing medical and dental bodies.
Museveni had promised to pay medical interns Shs 2.5 million (nearly US$694) monthly. But to the interns’ utter dismay, that amount was ruthlessly trimmed to Shs1 million (about US$278), and now eventually scrapped altogether.
It all started in August 2024 when Museveni told medical interns that their various sponsors should continue catering for their internship allowances as government does not have money to cater for their internship.
But much as medical interns are not reflected in the new budget which takes effect on July 1, Vice President Jessica Alupo told Parliament on June 10 that laws are not cast in stone; that cabinet is going back to the drawing board. According to Alupo, Cabinet will hold discussions on the proposed Medical Education and Internship Policy following which the Health minister will later present a statement to the august House on the way forward.
“We are talking about the positive impact of the deliberate channeling of resources to the human resource development of our country. We can definitely review this policy,” Alupo told Parliament on June 10.
“Uganda is talking of regional integration where we are talking of harmonizing medical internship where an intern from Uganda can go and do medical internship in Kenya, Tanzania… I am sorry, our president is the champion of this regional integration…Therefore, Uganda should not be doing a contradictory thing,” the past-immediate junior health minister in-charge of primary health care, Dr Joyce Moriku Kaducu, told Kampala-based Kfm radio talk show program, VPN on June 13.
The current budget is said to be riddled with so many wants; rather than addressing needs like allowances for medical interns who provide not an ordinary labour, but necessary medical services supplementing the work of the overstretched medical personnel in the health system. “Sometimes they [medical interns] work 36 hours, other times they work for 48 hours, non-stop; to take care of the people of Uganda. Government has historically facilitated them to do this work,” Leader of the Opposition in Parliament, Joel Senyonyi, told the august House on June 10.
Senyonyi worries how the medical interns will have to facilitate themselves and be expected to show up for work. He called on government to urgently look into the matter and emphasized that money can be got to pay medical interns.
The LoP explained that medical interns support the medical personnel in the largely ailing government health facilities.
“[And it’s a] very difficult course; medical is not an easy course. So, I think we should pay them…And I think what Uganda should be doing is to export these people. Let’s export medical tourism [like Cuba does]. And of all, these people are youth. Let’s not go wrong on the youth,” lawyer, MP and newly-appointed junior Public Service minister, Lydia Wanyoto-Mutende, said on Capital Gang, June 13.
However, it remains to be seen if the vice president and her ministers will succeed in overturning Museveni’s decision because when Parliament appropriated money for the purchase of ambulances in government-run health facilities in the 2024/2025 budget, a querulous Museveni angrily told Parliament not to tamper with “my budget”. He ordered the ambulances monies reverted to Roko; a private construction company allegedly with unclear ownership.
