Misleading: The Uganda Ministry of Health Did Not Fake An Ebola Outbreak To Block a By-Election.
First, shouldn’t an Ebola outbreak be seen as a tragedy bigger than a political party? An important question to ponder.
The claim made on X on Thursday, January 30, 2025, that the Ministry of Health (MoH) staged an Ebola outbreak in Uganda’s capital, Kampala, to thwart the Kawempe North by-election campaign, is very misleading to the public.
According to the Kampala Journal News, an online platform, the Ministry of Health fabricates an Ebola outbreak to thwart the Kawempe North by-election campaign.
The Facts
The Ministry of Health’s Permanent Secretary, Dr Diana Atwine, sent an alert message on her X account on Thursday, January 30, 2025, alerting the public to an Ebola outbreak in Kampala
“We have confirmed an outbreak of Sudan Ebola Virus Disease in Kampala, Uganda, following verification from three National Reference Laboratories. The index case, a 32-year-old male nurse from Mulago NRH, sought treatment at multiple facilities but our rapid response teams are fully deployed, contact tracing is underway, and all necessary measures are in place to contain the situation. We assure the public that we are in full control.” Read Dr. Atwine’s post
Permanent Secretary, Dr. @DianaAtwine addresses the media this afternoon.
“An outbreak of Sudan Ebola Virus Disease has been confirmed in Kampala, Uganda following confirmation from 3 National Reference Laboratories.” pic.twitter.com/oVVjRjsCtr
— Ministry of Health- Uganda (@MinofHealthUG) January 30, 2025
Atwine spoke to the media that same day about the problem and the fact that a nurse had also died from the illness. This information was subsequently covered both domestically, as seen here, here, and here, and by international media, as seen here, here, here, here, and here.
Additionally, indeed, campaigns are underway in the Kawempe Northern Division, a Kampala District constituency, in preparation for a by-election to fill Hon. Muhammad Ssegirinya’s parliamentary seat after his death.
The Analysis
The World Health Organization (WHO) joined Uganda’s Health Ministry on Monday, February 3, 2025, to launch a vaccination against the Sudan Ebola virus. Several articles about the same incident were published here, here, here, and here, and at the time of compiling and publishing this fact check, the numbers had risen to seven cases.
This led us to wonder if it was a hoax as said, what were they vaccinating individuals against, and why would credible health organizations like the WHO and Center for Disease Control participate in activities meant to protect the public.
On Monday, January 27th, 2025, the Ugandan Electoral Commission (EC) issued the roadmap for the by-election. From that road map, we also learned that a by-election for City Division Councillor, Kazo-Angola A, in Kazo-Angola Ward will also take place; why then would the MoH be interested in only Kawempe North?
KJNews claims the outbreak is meant to block campaigns in Kawempe North, but we still see party nominations for the flag bearers for the by-election by different political parties are ongoing, with the National Resistance Movement (NRM) already fronting their candidate here, the National Unity Platform (NUP) still selecting here, here, here, the Democratic Party (DP) yet to nominate here, and others are yet to communicate, demonstrating that the way to the campaigns is clear and unstopped yet.
It should be noted that the late Hon Ssegirinya Muhammad was a prominent National Unity Platform (NUP) member who previously won the member of parliament elections (here, here and here) for the currently contested seat and the publisher of the claim against the Ministry of Health “is” known to be linked to NUP, based on previous posts that are for NUP as seen here and elsewhere, as well as others against the ruling party, the National Resistance Movement and also seen here and here, and more
It should also be remembered that the Kampala Journal News platform has a reputation for sharing false news and propaganda, which we have, on many occasions, fact-checked and found to be false here, here, here, here, and here. Any information from them needs to be scrutinized further to ascertain its faithfulness.
Verdict
Misleading. The Ministry of Health did not fake an Ebola outbreak to block Kawempe North’s by-election campaign. The public needs to watch out for any symptoms both dry and wet and seek medical attention.
The Kampala Journal is simply trying to propagandize the outbreak and perhaps divert the public to seem relevant, dismiss the claims