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Bobi Wine, President of the opposition National Unity Platform, has weighed in on the recent social debate, in which former Foreign Affairs Minister Sam Kutesa faced backlash for building a new church.
Since the start of this week, Kutesa has been at the centre of an online debate about the so-called ‘three Sams.’
Some users took issue with his decision to construct a new church in his home district of Sembabule as a way of thanking God for delivering him from cancer.
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Kutesa, 76, revealed while unveiling the church that he had suffered from throat cancer around 2022.
He was rushed to Germany, where he underwent both chemotherapy and radiotherapy.
Upon full recovery, he said, he honoured his promise to God that he would build a church in his district.
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A section of Ugandans, however, were displeased by Mr Kutesa’s act of building a church rather than a hospital.
Some even contrasted him with a British national named Samuel Leeds, who, after surviving an accident in Uganda, decided to build a fully stocked 64-bed hospital in Jinja.
Others cited Sam Omala (the third Sam), a former police commander who passed away this week at Mulago Hospital, succumbed to cancer.
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Only the living can worship
Bobi Wine at a press conference lambasted Mr Kutesa, dubbing him a thief and inconsiderate.
Both Sam Omara and Sam Kutesa got cancer. The former was 60 and the other almost 80. But one, thanks to the money he had stolen from the government, was able to fly to Germany for treatment while the others rotted away at Mulago Hospital.
We were all shocked that when Mr Kutesa came back, in his mind he thought that hospitals could wait and that the most pressing thing was to build a church.
As much as we all love to worship God, we all know that only the living can worship. We know that we need hospitals and schools more than anything else.
Bobi Wine challenged Kutesa to learn from the leaders who have their people’s interests at heart, such as Burkina Faso President Ibrahim Traore, who reportedly rejected an offer to build multiple mosques in his country.