False: No Evidence That Uganda Medical Association Leader Made a Viral Statement Criticising Robert Kyagulanyi
Claim:
A video shared on TikTok by Tashanatsha8 claiming that the leader of the Uganda Medical Association, identified as Frank Asiimwe, blamed Robert Kyagulanyi Ssentamu for allegedly being in exile and failing to support medical interns. The video also alleges that he said the government blocked interns’ allowances and diverted UGX 128 billion to purchase cars for Members of Parliament.
The claim reads: “We have been disappointed by NUP especially Mr. Kyagulanyi who has failed to return from exile & come to fight for our medical interns after the regime blocking their allowances & used the money[shs128B] to buy cars for MPs”Frank Assimwe, leader of Uganda Medical Association cursed NUP boss.”
Background:
The claim features an image of a man identified as Dr. Frank Asiimwe, alongside text attributed to him. Dr. Asiimwe was elected president of the Uganda Medical Association by medical professionals according to reports by the Monitor and Nile Post.
Uganda has recently faced tensions in the health sector following government decisions affecting medical interns, including changes to allowances and the requirement of a mandatory one-year internship before graduation as reported here, and here . These developments have drawn public criticism and sparked debate over healthcare funding as reported here, here and here .
So we investigated to find out whether Dr Frank Assimwe said those words.
Evidence:
We analysed the video by capturing a screenshot of Asiimwe while at NTV that was used. A Google reverse image search was conducted to find the origin of the image and verify the context in which it was taken.
Our findings show that the image was taken from an appearance that Dr. Assimwe made on NTV on May 21, where he featured on the Morning at NTV show. During this appearance, he discussed the Ebola situation in Uganda, not medical interns or government spending as claimed.
An X post by NTV from that day reads:
“A pandemic like Ebola is not to be taken lightly, and being prepared is essential, as the consequences can be devastating. It is therefore critical to know how to manage pandemics alongside other ongoing health challenges” Frank Asiimwe, President, Uganda Medical Association
We also identified a video clip of the same broadcast on TikTok, which further confirms that the discussion focused on Ebola preparedness, and not on medical interns’ allowances or the claims made in the viral post.
Dr. Asiimwe being the president of UMA and given that the issue of medical interns’ allowances has attracted significant public attention, we conducted a media review to determine whether he had publicly commented on the matter and to establish his exact position.
Our findings show that in an interview with Uganda Radio Network (URN), as shared by the Independent Magazine, The Observer and NBS, Dr. Asiimwe addressed the issue of interns’ welfare. In the report, the Uganda Medical Association rejected the government’s proposal to provide lunch in place of allowances and did not blame Kyagulanyi or that the interns’ allowances were diverted to MPs’ vehicle purchase.
The article states: “Dr Frank Asiimwe, UMA President, told URN that interns require more than lunch, including breakfast, dinner, transport, and medical care. He stated that, as officers on probation, interns should receive seventy-five percent of the salary earned by medical officers.”
We also reviewed the source of the claim, including the account’s profile, posts, and found that it shares biased, misleading narratives and unbalanced content, often lacking credible sourcing and attempting to influence public opinion rather than present verified facts. This raises concerns about its reliability. In this case, the account wrongly attributed a statement to Dr. Asiimwe, further undermining its credibility.
Methodology:
To verify the claim, we used the following approaches:
Google Reverse Image Search
We used the google reverse image search tool to trace the origin of the image used in the post. This helped us identify that the image was from NTV morning show and the context being a talk about Ebola not medical interns allowances.
Media Monitoring
We reviewed reports from news outlets to know what exactly Dr. Asiimwe said on the issue of medical interns. This was far from what was attributed to him by Tashanatsha8.
Source Evaluation
We assessed the credibility of the account sharing the claim by analysing its content, and sourcing to know how reliable the source is. This source is not credible and information from it should be consumed with caution.
Verdict: False
There is no evidence that Dr. Assimwe made that statement. The quote is misattributed.