Hospital Besieged - E-book - ePub

When Dr. Musa completed his internship in Mulago Hospital in Kampala, Uganda, in mid-August 1985 he was posted to Masaka Hospital 135 Km south west of Kampala. Unfortunately, the hospital did not have houses for doctors because the houses had been destroyed in the 1979 war. So, he was sent to rent a two-bedroom apartment at a place called Ssaza, 3 Km away. The military barracks was off the road from the hospital to Ssaza.
During that time, the Uganda Army was fighting a losing war against Museveni's rebels. In the first week of October 1985, Museveni's rebels cut off Masaka from Kampala at Katonga bridge. They also established themselves at a hill above Masaka Hospital from where they were sending artillery to the Uganda Army Barracks and the army was returning fire flying over Masaka Hospital. Health workers and patients fled the hospital.
Dr. Musa fled on foot to Kyotera, 43 Km south of Masaka, near the border with Tanzania where he started running a clinic attached to a medicine vendor's shop. Meanwhile a woman called Mariam, operating a bar at Ssaza, who was a concubine of the commander of the Uganda Army in the barracks, quickly changed allegiance and became a supporter of Museveni's rebels. When the Uganda Army soldiers in the barracks surrendered and were given safe passage to Kampala, her bar at Ssaza became the drinking place for Museveni's rebels.
She was also appointed to conduct elections of local councils when people returned from villages where they had fled. Museveni captured Kampala on 26 Jan 1986 and that day he was sworn in as president, but it took a while to get medicines and other supplies as well as staff salaries to Masaka Hospital. So, the hospital was only re-opened in April 1986. In the meantime, Dr. Musa had returned to Masaka at the end of December 1985 and started working in a private clinic in Masaka town center while living at Ssaza in his two-room apartment while visiting Mariam's bar in the evenings.