{"id":22546,"date":"2021-12-08T12:43:07","date_gmt":"2021-12-08T12:43:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/?p=22546"},"modified":"2021-12-08T11:49:18","modified_gmt":"2021-12-08T11:49:18","slug":"covid-fight-human-rights-lawyer-opiyo-takes-swipe-at-clerics-in-bed-with-regime","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/covid-fight-human-rights-lawyer-opiyo-takes-swipe-at-clerics-in-bed-with-regime","title":{"rendered":"Covid fight: Human rights lawyer Opiyo takes swipe at clerics in \u2018bed with regime\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Uganda. <\/strong><\/span>Renowned human rights lawyer and activist, Nicholas Opiyo has scoffed at clerics who are in bed with the regime and look on as injustices are committed against Ugandans by \u201cgovernment machinery ruthlessly enforcing Covid-19 measures.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mr Opiyo explained that a bigger section of clerics have been silenced with brown envelopes by the regime hence not speaking out on the injustices arising out of the enforcement of Covid-19.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have a huge division in our society, especially among church leaders. There are some church leaders who have abandoned serving the flock and are instead in bed with the government to the extent that a photo opportunity with the president is more important than speaking the truth to power on behalf of Christians,\u201d Mr Opiyo said Tuesday.<\/p>\n

Mr Opiyo who\u2019s in The Hague, Netherlands, was speaking at the 9th virtual Town-Hall meeting yesterday alongside a panel of three other people.<\/p>\n

The lawyer along other experts were speaking on the topic themed: \u201cBeyond Covid-19, adopting a human rights-based approach in managing a public health crisis.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a shame for a bishop being given large sums of money in an envelope publicly. If the president chooses to give me money, he could do so by wiring it to my account but by the fact that he chooses to make it publicly, it only indicates he wants to remove their legitimacy and silence their voices at the time we need a united front to speak on behalf of Christians,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

The human rights lawyer also took a swipe against the government for coming up with what he described as very extreme measures that infringe on the enjoyment of human rights and freedoms and yet Covid fatalities are not so huge.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think there is a paranoia about Covid and get me right, I believe there is Covid and it is killing people, but the fatality rates of Covid, is 2.4 per cent in worst cases scenarios like in Italy, this means that out of every 100 people who get sick, only 2.4 face the possibility of death. I am not saying the 2.4 percent should die and yet you have taken extreme measures to combat Covid in ways we haven\u2019t done for diseases killing people like HIV and malaria,\u201d he observed.<\/p>\n

Adding: \u201cI don\u2019t think Covid is such a big problem to qualify the disruption of our lives. We have to be given the right of choice that people can opt out or in if you don\u2019t want to get a vaccine mandate that is essence of freedom, choice. But there are people who do not want to do it due to religious reasons, for cultural reasons, we have to have a system in place to accommodate a variety of choices, beliefs that we have in society but also to keep people healthy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Speaking at the same virtual meeting, Mr Wisdom K Peter, a gospel minister with a medical background, also took a swipe at government for their continued restriction on the number of worshipers who attend service at a given time.<\/p>\n

\u201cMost Africans will run to spirituality and faith when they have big issues. That is why by the way when the pandemic started, it was predicted that the highest number of deaths would be in Africa but it didn\u2019t happen,\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThat means our faith and spirituality works, now when you take remedies to the pandemic that undermine our faith that means major heritage in the African setting, we begin to doubt you, it becomes clear to us that while we want to call it a pandemic day in day out, it is clear that some people have agendas. So today, so many people are depressed, so many people have run out of business, families are broken among others.\u201d<\/p>\n

President Museveni has allowed only 200 worshipers to attend church service at a given point as a measure to curbing on the spread of Covid-19.<\/p>\n

However, some critiques think the 200 cap on the number is literally small and yet government has allowed very crowded and unruly places like markets and downtown Kampala operate without any number restrictions.<\/p>\n

Efforts to reach out to clerics associations by press time were futile as they didn’t pick our repeated phone calls to them.<\/p>\n

[email protected]<\/p>\n

For More News And Analysis About Uganda<\/a> Follow Africa-Press<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Uganda. Renowned human rights lawyer and activist, Nicholas Opiyo has scoffed at clerics who are in bed with the regime and look on as injustices are committed against Ugandans by \u201cgovernment machinery ruthlessly enforcing Covid-19 measures.\u201d Mr Opiyo explained that a bigger section of clerics have been silenced with brown envelopes by the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":22545,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,6,8],"tags":[233,240,234],"class_list":["post-22546","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-files","category-homepage-english","tag-africa-press","tag-africa-press-uganda","tag-uganda"],"yoast_head":"\nCovid fight: Human rights lawyer Opiyo takes swipe at clerics in \u2018bed with regime\u2019 - Uganda<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Renowned human rights lawyer and activist, Nicholas Opiyo has scoffed at clerics who are in bed with the regime and look ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/covid-fight-human-rights-lawyer-opiyo-takes-swipe-at-clerics-in-bed-with-regime\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Covid fight: Human rights lawyer Opiyo takes swipe at clerics in \u2018bed with regime\u2019\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Renowned human rights lawyer and activist, Nicholas Opiyo has scoffed at clerics who are in bed with the regime and look ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/covid-fight-human-rights-lawyer-opiyo-takes-swipe-at-clerics-in-bed-with-regime\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Uganda\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2021-12-08T12:43:07+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/uganda\/sites\/34\/2021\/12\/img-61b09ba95886b.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"720\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"480\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/covid-fight-human-rights-lawyer-opiyo-takes-swipe-at-clerics-in-bed-with-regime#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/covid-fight-human-rights-lawyer-opiyo-takes-swipe-at-clerics-in-bed-with-regime\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"Covid fight: Human rights lawyer Opiyo takes swipe at clerics in \u2018bed with regime\u2019\",\"datePublished\":\"2021-12-08T12:43:07+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/covid-fight-human-rights-lawyer-opiyo-takes-swipe-at-clerics-in-bed-with-regime\"},\"wordCount\":735,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/covid-fight-human-rights-lawyer-opiyo-takes-swipe-at-clerics-in-bed-with-regime#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/uganda\/sites\/34\/2021\/12\/img-61b09ba95886b.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Africa Press\",\"Africa Press-Uganda\",\"uganda\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"files\",\"homepage-english\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/covid-fight-human-rights-lawyer-opiyo-takes-swipe-at-clerics-in-bed-with-regime#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/covid-fight-human-rights-lawyer-opiyo-takes-swipe-at-clerics-in-bed-with-regime\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/covid-fight-human-rights-lawyer-opiyo-takes-swipe-at-clerics-in-bed-with-regime\",\"name\":\"Covid fight: Human rights lawyer Opiyo takes swipe at clerics in \u2018bed with regime\u2019 - 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