Azawi: I Lost My Father & Sister Because of Poor Health Services Yet Government Dishes Out Billions to Politicians, Artistes

Singer Priscilla Zawedde aka Azawi has blamed the death of her father and sister to poor healthcare services delivery even as government has over the years kept dishing out billions to politicians and artistes, most of them already established, wealthy and powerful.

Among all youthful artistes in Uganda, Azawi has been one of the most vocal in showing support to anti-corruption march to parliament protests in which young people were calling for the resignation of Speaker Anita Among and government’s tough action against all corrupt officials in President Yoweri Museveni’s government.

At first she warned government against harassing youths and trying to sweep their concerns under the carpet yet they were the majority of Uganda’s population. Azawi worried that by the time Museveni’s government realizes that arresting and remanding youth protesters was not the solution, it might be too late.

“You have arrogantly refused to work on the issues affecting almost 78% of this population, you’re even willing to hurt any ‘Nakasatwe’ that expresses their dissatisfaction with tear gas and canes. I hope it won’t be too late when you eventually decide to listen to us!!” Azawi wrote on microblogging site X, before deleting the post later.

And many began speculating whether an invisible hand had prompted Azawi to delete her post that had begun attracting a lot of attention from youths, exciting them, and winning her acclaim for the boldness – daring to criticize the Museveni state even when she knows there could be tough consequences.

When she deleted her post, Azawi, explained: “I want to clarify that I personally deleted my post because I have full control over my Twitter account. Trust me, I didn’t do it to please those doing this country faulty. I can never give such cowards that satisfaction.”

Azawi then later appeared on an X Space hosted by former Vision Group CEO Robert Kabushenga where she sought to explain why she was angry with Museveni’s government.

“I have lost my father due to poor healthcare. I have lost my sister just after [her] giving birth because of poor healthcare and then you wake up one morning and you see they have given someone Shs500m, and you see one musician has been given Shs5bn. What for?” she asked.

“This is really sad because these are artistes that have been here for sometime. They have established themselves. They are doing okay. But then someone in our government wakes up one morning and says ‘let us give these musicians Shs5bn to enjoy themselves. What for? Don’t fans support him or her? ”

Singer Azawi has added her voices to calls by some notable Ugandans who have warned Museveni’s government that it might be too late for him if his government keeps arresting Ugandan youths protesting against corruption. Opposition leader Bobi Wine has encouraged youth protesters even after Museveni claimed they were receiving money from foreign agents. (See Details Here, There and Over There).