A growing crisis is unfolding in Bukomansimbi District, where senior citizens are pleading for the government to expand specialized healthcare services before more lives are lost. With no geriatric care available, elderly residents are left vulnerable, suffering in silence as treatable conditions spiral into life-threatening illnesses.
76-year-old Emmanuel Kabayiza, a resident of Lwemiriti village in Kitanda subcounty, paints a grim picture: “There isn’t a single health facility in the entire district dedicated to the elderly. The government clinics only offer basic treatment before referring us elsewhere—but most of us cannot afford to travel.”
With only one government Health Center IV at Butenga serving nine sub-counties, specialized healthcare remains out of reach. Elderly patients are frequently diagnosed, handed prescriptions, and sent away with nowhere to turn.
At Kitanda Government Health Center III, frail elderly patients like Khadijja Namazzi and Madina Nakato share harrowing stories of their daily struggle. They suffer from hypertension, complex fevers, and vision impairment—yet access to essential medication remains a gamble.
“The health centers have chronic drug shortages,” Namazzi says. “Many of us rely on charity medical camps, but those are rare and unsustainable. How long must we beg for our right to healthcare?”
The crisis is compounded by a severe shortage of medical specialists. District Chairperson Fred Nyenje Kayiira admits that Bukomansimbi’s health system is overwhelmed. “We’re pushing for Butenga Health Center IV to be upgraded to a General Hospital, which would bring in specialists,” he says.
Meanwhile, Charles Isabirye, Chairperson of the National Council for Older Persons, reveals that discussions are ongoing to enroll senior citizens in a national health insurance scheme. But for many suffering elders in Bukomansimbi, time is running out.
Without urgent government intervention, the district’s elderly population remains trapped in a relentless cycle of pain, neglect, and needless deaths.
