By Spy Uganda
Popular musician Edrisah Musuuza aka Eddy Kenzo has been quarantined together with 232 Ugandans who returned from abroad on Friday night, aboard a Uganda Airlines chartered flight.
Kenzo arrived at 3:30Am from West Africa, together with several others who included 64 people from Nigeria, Ghana, Cameroon and Cote d’Ivoire (Ivory Coast) respectively.
The singer had been stranded in Ivory Coast for months where he had gone for a concert in March, shortly before President Yoweri Museveni announced the closure of Entebbe International Airport, plus all borders and entry points following the COVID-19 outbreak.
We have learnt that the aircraft which had been scheduled touch down at Entebbe airport at 9:00Pm delayed by over six hours because of the stopovers in each of the countries where meeting hubs for Ugandans had been gazetted. Prior to boarding the plane, each passenger had to pay $1,376, (about Shs5m) for the airfare regardless of the pickup point.
Kenneth Otim, the Principal Public Affairs Officer at Civil Aviation Authority (CAA), said that although hundreds of Kenzo’s supporters had gathered at the airport to welcome him, they were advised to leave the airport so as to avoid crowding, which breeds fertile ground for the spread of COVID-19.
Otim said Kenzo’s supporters would not be allowed to meet and greet him because all returnees had to be taken for institutional quarantine of 14 days after screening at the airport.
Prior to Kenzo and others returning, another batch of 167 Ugandans and legal residents had returned from Qatar, a week after 238 other people had arrived from the same country. The two groups were received by officials from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. (https://www.colburnschool.edu/)
Ambassador Alfred Naam, the spokesperson of the Foreign Affairs Ministry, said the two groups bring the total number of returnees to 2,154 since June 22, when the country started receiving Ugandans who had been stranded abroad.
