Museveni has warned landlords against evicting tenants who failed to pay their monthly dues

President Yoweri Museveni has warned landlords against evicting tenants who failed to pay their monthly dues as the country grapples with the fight against COVID-19.

In his address to the nation on Wednesday evening, Mr. Museveni asked landlords to be patient with their tenants considering that the current crisis in the country is affecting everyone.

In a bid to put the spread of the virus at bay, the President last week announced a two-week lockdown following citizens’ violation of the previous measures.

Under the lockdown, the president prohibited all movement, closed shopping malls, arcades, non-food stores, lodges, saloons, and public gatherings, among others. He therefore encouraged all people, except the essential workers to stay home.

However, the most affected were those living on a hand to mouth income but the government promised to relieve them of some of the burdens like food.

The government over the weekend started the distribution of food supplies to those that they believe were most affected by the lockdown, however, despite government efforts to ease the burden, there are still more challenges that some people are facing such as paying their rent dues among other utility bills.

“Landlords trying to evict people for not paying rent, this should not be allowed. They should contribute. The world is not ending, the shutdown is for a limited period, and it will end. The debt can be cleared after we are through with this,” Mr. Museveni said.

In addition, the President directed the police to reign in on the situation should they find anyone being evicted during this period.

Uganda confirmed her first case of COVID-19 on March 22, 2020. The numbers have since grown to 53.