Dickens Odongo

I am passionate about global health and Health System Strengthening.

[Dickens Odongo @DickensOdongo9]

@BalaamBarugahar @SpireJim @abaho_abel Just do away with DSC, I don't think there is any who still act with integrity, transparency, and honesty. DSC are the route cause of corruption, secretaranism and nepotism in job recruitment and promotion in LG. Let have a centralized recruitment body for LG.

[Dr M Shujat Rasool @DrMShujat]

During ward and emergency duties, I have seen many juniors struggle with one question: “Which fluid should I give this patient?”

In busy calls, we often get confused between Normal Saline, Ringer’s Lactate, Dextrose, Mannitol, and others.

So I made a simple approach. Sharing it here so it helps someone during their next duty. 🧵

[Dickens Odongo @DickensOdongo9]

@amronaldo @Sambannz @akorising Who must take full responsibility sir?

[Ronald Amanyire @amronaldo]

Let me repeat this clearly and again. The moment you step out of your house, your office, or your market stall, you enter a road network filled with variables you cannot control. In that environment, your safety depends entirely on the state’s ability to manage those variables. This is precisely why the global road safety framework is built on the Safe Systems approach which is an approach that requires government to control and coordinate every element of the system, not blame individuals for outcomes they cannot influence.

The Safe Systems Approach starts from one non‑negotiable principle: Human beings will make mistakes which means the system must be designed so those mistakes do not become fatal.

Uganda’s bus crashes happen because the system allows predictable human errors to escalate into mass‑casualty events

1. System Design Control: the real root cause

Uganda’s highways are narrow, undivided, and lack forgiving features. This means:

⏩️No median barriers → a single overtaking mistake becomes a head‑on collision.

⏩️No shoulder recovery space → buses veer off the road and roll over.

⏩️No speed‑calming infrastructure → buses travel at 100–120 km/h on roads designed for 60–80 km/h.

⏩️No protected overtaking zones → drivers must guess when it is safe.

In Safe Systems logic, this is the primary failure.
Drivers are operating in an environment where one mistake = mass death.

2. Safe Vehicles: buses are not engineered for crash survival. Ugandan buses often lack:

⏩️Electronic stability control
⏩️Rollover protection
⏩️Seatbelts
⏩️Crash‑worthy structures

A Safe System assumes crashes will happen so vehicles must absorb energy and protect occupants. Uganda’s fleet does not.

3. Safe Road Users: predictable human behaviour, not “bad drivers”. Careless overtaking and speeding dominate crash statistics because:

⏩️Drivers are pressured by owners to arrive faster.
⏩️Night travel is incentivised by business models.
⏩️Enforcement is sporadic and easily bypassed.

Safe Systems treats this as normal human behaviour under pressure, not moral failure. The system must anticipate it and neutralise its consequences.

4. Post‑Crash Response: deaths occur because rescue is slow. Many bus crashes become fatal because:

⏩️Ambulances arrive late or not at all.
⏩️Victims are transported in pickups or taxis.
⏩️Trauma care capacity is limited.

Safe Systems requires rapid, professional post‑crash care to prevent survivable injuries from becoming deaths.

Synthesis: What actually causes bus crashes in Uganda?

Under Safe Systems, the cause is not drivers. The cause is a system that guarantees driver mistakes will lead to fatalities.

Uganda’s bus crashes are the predictable outcome of:

⏩️High‑speed buses
⏩️On narrow, unforgiving roads
⏩️With weak enforcement
⏩️In poorly crash‑worthy vehicles
⏩️At night
⏩️With slow emergency response

This is why the same crash patterns repeat every time, year after year without anyone taking full responsibility. FOR GOD AND MY COUNTRY.

[Al Jazeera English @AJEnglish]

An Ebola survivor in the DR Congo is urging people to reject misinformation and seek treatment early.

Gladys Munguroma says fear delayed her visit to hospital, but medical care helped save her life.

[Dr. Oriba Dan Langoya @DrOribaDan]

Williams is available. Give him a chance if you have any opportunity for a Clinical offer. 🇺🇬🇺🇬✍️✍️

[Daniel Kawuma @Kawuma]

2/2

History teaches us that democracies rarely collapse overnight. They collapse gradually, one arrested journalist, one abducted activist, one imprisoned opposition leader, one silenced court, and one closed newsroom at a time until silence itself becomes state policy.

Uganda now stands at such a crossroads. The courage displayed by journalists, lawyers, human rights defenders, religious leaders, political prisoners, and ordinary citizens reminds us that democracy is ultimately sustained not by governments but by people willing to defend it despite enormous personal cost.

As Ugandans living across the world, we refuse to become spectators while our homeland descends further into fear. We will continue to amplify the voices of the oppressed. We will continue to advocate peacefully for justice. We will continue to stand with every Ugandan who believes that no individual, no family, and no military institution stands above the law.

The struggle before us is larger than politics. It is a struggle for the soul of Uganda. The world still has an opportunity to act, not tomorrow, but today. For every day that repression is tolerated, the cost of restoring peace, democracy, and national reconciliation grows immeasurably higher.

Dr. Daniel Kawuma
On behalf of the National Unity Platform Diaspora Team

[Nelson Amenya @amenya_nelson]

You only have the ‘power’ to bully institutions inside Uganda. Step outside Uganda’s borders and your threats are as valuable as a veto in a room where you don’t have a seat.

It takes a remarkably primitive political imagination to inherit influence and conclude that its highest purpose is shutting down media houses. While serious nations are competing to build world class universities, industries, research centres, and militaries, you are proudly advertising censorship as though it were a national achievement.

Instead of helping Mzee leave behind a prosperous, technologically advanced Uganda, you boast about destroying businesses, silencing journalists, and reinforcing the very stereotypes that have held African politics back for decades. You possess the mentality of an oversized political infant who mistakes coercion for competence and inherited authority for personal greatness.

Uganda has thepotential to be one of Africa’s leading economies. The tragedy is that its potential is too often constrained by leaders who still think like feudal chiefs rather than twenty first century nation builders. History has never been kind to rulers who confuse fear with respect, or obedience with legitimacy.

[Dickens Odongo @DickensOdongo9]

@BonnetNuwa89517 @SarahBireete We are in divide and rule system.
The whole country need to unit and force the hell out of this dictatorship.

[Sabrina Kitaka @SabrinaKitaka]

WHAT DOCTORS SAY WHEN NOBODY IS WATCHING: WHAT I LEARNED FROM A ROOM FULL OF UGANDAN DOCTORS

By Henry Mutebe

As someone who works in public health but is not a medical doctor, I occasionally get the chance of sitting in spaces where these health professionals discuss their work at a depth that many of us outside medicine rarely get to see. Every time I do, I come away with a new appreciation of the profession.

A few weeks ago, I attended a mortality audit involving a pre-term baby who had, sadly, passed. This particular experience left a lasting impression on me. For those who may not know what a mortality audit is, it is essentially a structured review of a death. In this case, it was a baby born prematurely who was referred from another health facility and later passed away despite the efforts made to save the child's life.

What fascinated me was not simply the process itself, but the honesty, rigor, and depth with which it was conducted.
Let me paint for you a picture of what I saw. Basically, consultants/specialists, medical officers, interns, nurses, anesthetists, laboratory personnel, and other members of the care team sat in one room and then the case (the story of the child who had passed) was then presented in detail.

The presentation starts from the very beginning. Who was the patient? What was the mother's history? What happened during pregnancy? Were there any risk factors identified during antenatal care? Where was the baby born? What was the condition of the baby at birth?

When was the referral made? How long did the transfer take? What condition was the child in upon arrival? What interventions were done? What medicines were given? What investigations were requested? What were the results? At what exact time did each of these things happen? And then the discussion begins.

The team goes through the case almost minute by minute. Could the diagnosis have been made earlier? Was the right treatment given? Was it given at the correct dose? Was it given at the correct time? Were the laboratory results accurate? Were they interpreted correctly? Were the machines functioning properly? Had the equipment been serviced?

Were oxygen levels monitored correctly? Were there delays in referral? Were there missed opportunities during antenatal care? Were warning signs overlooked somewhere along the patient's journey? It is so detailed that nothing is taken for granted.

These guys question a lot of things. They asked so many things but that’s all I could, with my arts mind, remember 

And there is a sense in which, despite the honesty with which its done, you feel like people are not looking for someone to blame, but they are looking for lessons. It was that method that got me hooked.

What struck me most was the extent to which the discussion was anchored in science, evidence, protocols, and guidelines. At every stage, people would ask: What do the guidelines say? Some Doctor would then state the guidelines on a certain dosage, procedure or issue. There is no gambling!

They would ask what is the recommended standard of care? Was the protocol followed? Was there any deviation from established practice? If there was, what was the reason? The discussion was not driven by opinions, seniority, or personalities. It is an examination of what was done mapped against what is recommended to be done.

The discussions were driven by evidence. There in that room, its science. They have absolute established guidelines and they do this with such relentless attention to detail. I found that profoundly impressive.

The level of care with which every step was examined was extraordinary. Tiny details that many of us would dismiss as insignificant were carefully scrutinized because in medicine, as I learnt during that meeting, sometimes the difference between life and death lies in what appears to be a small detail.
Mortality audits hold everyone to account.

[UgHistory @UGHistory256]

1994.

Constituent Assembly, Kampala.

Akbar Adoko Nekyon paused to speak.

He had been Obote's first cousin, a minister in the independence government, a key player in the 1966 crisis that shattered Uganda's first democracy.

Now, before a chamber that included President Museveni, the old politician declared, "I have changed."

The Maverick's Confession: Nekyon at the Constituent Assembly - 1994

To understand the weight of those words, one had to understand 1966.

Nekyon had been a central figure in the UPC/KY alliance that brought Obote to power.

He had helped build the very political order that Obote then destroyed, suspending the constitution and attacking the Kabaka's palace.

Nekyon had crossed the floor to the Democratic Party after that fracture.

Now, nearly three decades later, dressed in a cream Kaunda suit, he sat before the assembly tasked with writing Uganda's new constitution and made a declaration that was both personal and political:

The ability to change one's mind is not a weakness but the "highest democratic virtue" and proof of a "living political mind".

He then held up a mirror to the room.

He listed the political migrations of those who might accuse him of hypocrisy, Vice President Speciosa Wandira Kazibwe, Ruhakana Rugunda, and even President Museveni himself.

Change, he argued, was a constant in their political journeys too.

By doing so, he dismantled the accusation of inconsistency and reframed the debate.

His speech became not a defence of his own record, but a challenge to the entire political class to embrace a system that allowed for peaceful evolution.

His tone softened as he concluded, shifting from combatant to elder statesman.

His "I have changed" became a plea for a system robust enough to allow such evolution peacefully.

The true measure of a democracy, he insisted, was not its ability to enforce orthodoxy but its capacity to tolerate and integrate change.

The cream of his suit was a quiet beacon of a principled stand in a room swirling with the new politics of conformity.

He had seen it all, independence, crisis, exile, return, and his final message was a warning:

A nation that can not accommodate peaceful political change is destined for violent upheaval.

What does it mean when an architect of a broken past stands before the builders of a new future and admits he has changed, not as a confession of guilt, but as a demand that the new system must allow others to do the same?

Nekyon's 1994 speech was a masterclass in political honesty.

He did not ask for forgiveness.

He asked for a constitution that made future 1966s impossible.

The chamber listened.

The words remain.

#ughistory @UPCSecretariat @KagutaMuseveni @pwatchug @GovUganda @UgandaMediaCent @Parliament_Ug @SpeciosaW @RuhakanaR @NRMOnline @DPSecretariat1 @UPCSecretariat

[Dickens Odongo @DickensOdongo9]

@NamaraDennisMP @Parliament_Ug Instead, the Uganda constitution should be amended to automatically make CDF become president of Uganda. Why are you taking too long?

[Tock @yvan_theriault]

Ouah ! Les abeilles sont incroyables !!

Saviez-vous que l'une des premières pièces du monde avait un symbole d'abeille ?
Saviez-vous que le miel contient des enzymes vivantes ?
Saviez-vous qu'au contact d'une cuillère en métal, ces enzymes meurent ? La meilleure façon de manger du miel est avec une cuillère en bois ; si vous n'en trouvez pas, utilisez une cuillère en plastique.
Saviez-vous que le miel contient une substance qui aide le cerveau à mieux fonctionner ?
Saviez-vous que le miel est l'un des rares aliments sur terre qui seul peut soutenir la vie humaine ?
Saviez-vous que les abeilles sauvaient les gens de la famine en Afrique ?
Qu'une cuillère de miel suffit pour garder un homme en vie pendant 24 heures ?
Saviez-vous que la propolis produite par les abeilles est l'un des antibiotiques naturels les plus puissants ?
Saviez-vous que le miel n'a pas de date d'expiration ?
Saviez-vous que les corps des plus grands empereurs du monde étaient enterrés dans des cercueils d'or, puis couverts de miel pour éviter la putréfaction ?
Saviez-vous que le terme « lune de miel » (lune de miel) vient du fait que les mariés ont consommé du miel pour leur fertilité après leur mariage ?
Saviez-vous qu'une abeille vit moins de 40 jours, visite au moins 1000 fleurs et produit moins qu'une cuillère à café de miel, mais pour elle c'est l'œuvre de toute une vie.
merci précieuses abeilles !

[Daily Monitor @DailyMonitor]

QUOTE: "The other day I was telling people—I think I was in Mbale—and I said, 'Poor people will not go to Heaven.' They said, 'Hey, you man, you've committed sacri— I said you will not go to Heaven, do you know why? 'When you are poor, you won't go to Heaven. Do you know why? Because a poor man wakes up in the morning, first thing they do is curse God: 'God, oh God, why did you make me poor? Why is everybody else better than me?' >God gave you a head and brain for free. He gave you hands for free. He gave you legs for free. He gave you energy for free. He gave you land for free. He gives you rain for free. Then you curse God for not giving you money? God gave you the attributes of making money. That's why he has not come here to set up a business. God has no business, he doesn't look for a job, he doesn't earn a salary, so he can't give you money because he doesn't make money. But he has given you assets for making money. So stop blaming God for your poverty. In Uganda here, the poverty is in your head"- Gen (rtd) Kahinda Otafiire.

#MonitorUpdates

[Mukula @mukulaa]

Baby Akurut Chloe, a 9 month old girl from Soroti City, has been diagnosed with a congenital heart condition (a hole in her heart) and urgently needs life saving surgery at the Uganda Heart Institute. Her parents are struggling to meet the costs of treatment, medication, and related care. We humbly appeal to kind hearted individuals, organizations, and well wishers to extend any support they can to help save her precious life. No contribution is too small, and your prayers are equally appreciated during this difficult time. Together, we can give Baby Chloe a chance to grow up healthy and strong. Please stand with this family and help bring hope to their little angel. #SaveBabyChloe #HeartSurgeryAppeal

Name :Akurut chloe

Parents: Julius & Diana ICHOTO

[email protected]

[phone]/ [phone]

[Ssuuna King James -MP UOT🇺🇬 🇰🇪🇹🇿🇸🇩🇵🇸 @SuunaKing_James]

WHY M7 REFUSED TO GIVE HIS COMRADES POWER?

I have said this before, and let me repeat it here today. Many young and poor boys and girls today undermine Gen. Otafiire and other war comrades of M7, such as Besigye and Mugisha Muntu, simply because they have bread to earn. But what lies behind this situation, and what has brought us to where we are today?

After the 1986 war in Luweero, there was a consensus within the NRA militia that M7 had done well to stabilize the country. This was the first step in how he entrenched himself in power. A man who had promised to hand over power after two years ended up ruling until 1996.

After the introduction of M7’s Constitution, the militia group gradually evolved into a political movt, Most of its commanders had to make a choice either remain in military service or actively participate in politics. The only person who had the opportunity to do both was M7. Many of them did not realize the implications until 1998 when Besigye spoke out.

The rise of Besigye should have awakened other NRA commanders to reality, but many did not see it that way. Instead, they viewed him as a selfish and ambitious soldier who wanted to SKIP THE QUEUE.

Now, what exactly was the queue?

We used to line up for posho at school under the scorching lunchtime sun. I remember we would even fight whenever a student jumped the line, went straight to the kitchen, or joined ahead of everyone else. There was a school in Lugazi where we had many students from Karamoja. One student would line up first and later allow another 200 students to join in front of everyone else, causing frustration among the rest of us.

This is exactly what happened within the NRA and later the NRM corruption group. Anyone who tried to oppose M7 from within, but was not considered next in the queue, would be collectively fought by almost all NRA commanders, including those who themselves harbored presidential ambitions. This happened to Besigye, Bukenya, and Mbabazi. The work that was once done by NRA commanders is now being done by Muhoozi’s hungry and poor dogs.

Somehow, M7 outsmarted all of them. He always had political battles to manage, both within his circle and outside it. As a result, those who might have raised questions about transition either gave up or ended up supporting him again. Many of the most suitable leaders from the NRA publicly distanced themselves from presidential ambitions. This gave M7 even more room to extend his grip on power and reinforced the perception that none of his comrades were truly prepared to succeed him.

Lastly, overstaying in power helped exhaust his war comrades while allowing him to position his son for succession. You all know that M7 has buried more of his war comrades than his relatives, extending his rule for such a long period meant that many of those who could have challenged him would eventually fade from the political scene, retire, or pass away and many indeed did.
Most of the top commanders from the Luweero war are no longer politically active, while the few who remain either have no presidential ambitions or have retired.

Exhausting his comrades was a strategic move that created space for his son. By the time he rises, there may be very few figures left with enough influence or strength to challenge him. Those who have attempted to do so have often ended up exiled, silenced, politically neutralized or killed.

The overly ambitious were dealt with, and as you can see, M7 has now surrounded himself with potatoes and cabbage that pose no threat to his position or even his son. He’s confident that these individuals have no presidential ambitions and will never become a headache for him or his son.

That is how M7 outsmarted many of his war comrades who once had presidential ambitions and the potential to succeed him.

[ɴᴀᴠᴇᴇɴ ᴋᴜᴍᴀʀ @DrNovinoTailor]

The clinical picture :- pinpoint pupils (miosis) + salivation + wheezing + bradycardia, is classic for Organophosphate poisoning, producing a cholinergic crisis.

Mechanism :-

irreversible inhibition of acetylcholinesterase 👉 accumulation of acetylcholine 👉 overstimulation of muscarinic + nicotinic receptors.

Antidotes :-

✅ Atropine - blocks muscarinic effects (secretions, bradycardia, bronchospasm).
✅ Pralidoxime - reactivates acetylcholinesterase at nicotinic sites, reversing muscle weakness/fasciculations.

[Sam Okudzeto Ablakwa @S_OkudzetoAblak]

I congratulate the University of Ghana’s School of Performing Arts for that masterful reenactment of the transatlantic enslavement at the Osu Castle during the Next Steps Juneteenth commemoration.

Their brilliant performance is receiving wide international acclaim with invitations already pouring in from multiple countries including Barbados, Jamaica and the US.

Really proud of Ghana’s outstanding diverse talents.

May I wish all our hardworking and caring men a Happy Father’s Day.

[Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus @DrTedros]

My thanks to @_AfricanUnion Chairperson, President of #Burundi @GeneralNeva, for convening a high-level meeting of Heads of State and Government on the #Ebola Bundibugyo outbreak response, which mobilised $910 million in pledges.

Here are the seven priorities that came out of the Summit:

1. The response must be African-led, with the affected countries in the driver’s seat, supported by partners based on the principle of one plan, one budget, one team.

2. The Summit has endorsed the continued collaboration between @WHO and @AfricaCDC, under the joint Incident Management Support Team and the Joint Continental Preparedness and Response Plan.

3. While we invest in fighting Ebola, we must invest in strengthening essential health systems and services, and in addressing the wider humanitarian emergency in Ituri, #DRC.

4. We continue to call for countries that have imposed blanket travel restrictions to lift them.

5. We must continue building national and regional capacity to produce vaccines, therapeutics and other medical products.

6. We ask the armed groups to agree to a ceasefire until the outbreak is over. This Summit has called for the urgent establishment of humanitarian access corridors to ensure safe access for authorities and partners to North Kivu, South Kivu and other high-risk areas.

7. As we work to stop this outbreak, we must start work now to prevent the next one, by addressing the root causes.

[Rafael Sirera @ProfSirera]

Today we are going to solve one of the great mysteries of modern medicine.

Why is the operating theatre green?
And why, in some hospitals, is green now being replaced by blue?

The colour of the operating theatre is a beautiful example of how physiology, perception and clinical practice meet.

The key problem is blood.

Surgery exposes the visual system to intense, repetitive red. Red blood, red tissues, red vessels, red-stained gauze. After staring at red for a long time, the cone cells in the retina that detect red become partially fatigued. The brain then begins to compensate.

And here comes the fascinating part.

Green sits opposite red in the opponent-colour system of human vision. When the eye is overstimulated by red, looking at a green surface helps rebalance visual perception. It reduces red after-images and improves contrast discrimination. In practical terms, it helps surgeons see tissue planes, bleeding points and subtle anatomical details more clearly.

So no, green is not used because it is “more sterile”. Sterility has nothing to do with colour. A green theatre can be contaminated, and a white one can be perfectly sterile. Nor is green used because it “kills bacteria” or because it has some intrinsic antiseptic property. That is a myth.

Historically, operating rooms were often white, because white symbolised cleanliness. But under powerful surgical lights, white became visually exhausting. It reflected glare, intensified visual fatigue and made red after-images more disturbing. Green solved that problem.

And what about blue?

Blue works through a similar logic. It is also visually calming, reduces glare and contrasts well with blood and tissue. In many modern surgical environments, blue is preferred because it performs well under LED illumination, video-assisted surgery and digital imaging systems. It also provides a clean visual field for monitors, cameras and minimally invasive procedures.

Blue also makes yellowish structures — fat, bile-stained fluid or some tissue planes — visually conspicuous, but that is not the origin of the colour code.

The green or blue operating theatre is not about aesthetics.
It is about protecting the surgeon’s visual system from the biology of blood.