Executive Director of the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS – UNAIDS, Winnie Byanyima has credited President Yoweri Kaguta for his continued fight against HIV/AIDS.
Byanyima on Monday while meeting Uganda AIDS Commission team led by Presidency Minister Esther Mbayo and the board members at the Ministry saluted Museveni who championed the struggle against the pandemic even before he was the leader of Uganda.
“My first point is leadership. I begin by saluting the leadership in this country, beginning with the President himself who started fighting against HIV even before he was the President of this country,” Byanyima said.
Winnie Byanyima is the wife of Col. Kizza Besigye, a long time political adversary of President Museveni. The two principles worked closely before Besigye broke ranks in 1999 accusing his superior of veering off track.
He would later announce his intentions to challenge Museveni as President in 2001, until today- two decades later he is yet to take power.
But the NRM chairman has maintained a close working relation with Besigye’s wife.
Winnie Byanyima before joining UNAIDS, headed the OXFAM. On both occasions he has been endorsed by NRM government.
On Monday she recollected the bush war memories when Ugandans were naïve about HIV and the virus claimed several lives.
“When I joined the armed struggle which you call the Bush War we were already beginning to see that people were dying of a disease that was transmitted sexually,” she told the meeting.
But Museveni who then had travelled to different parts of the world seeking support to change Uganda’s leadership took to the vanguard of spreading the gospel against a sexually transmitted disease that never had cure.
“And right then he took on the issue, he spoke about it in the struggle, the revolution happened, NRM took power and the campaign, prevention campaign started in earnest on day one,” Byanyima added.
“So that is leadership. I salute of the President and NRM at the time. And leadership that has led to this important achievement of our country.”
