Kabale Journalist holds ‘scientific’ wedding

Kabale – Kabale Diocese has held its first ‘scientific’ wedding with Radio Maria presenter exchanging his marriage vows amid COVID-19 lockdown.

Medard Atumuhaire, a presenter at Radio Maria (Kabale) Catholic Radio station, exchanged vows with his bride, Cecilia Nasasira in a nearly empty Church on Saturday, April 18.

Presiding over the wedding on Saturday at St.Marys cathedral Rushooroza cathedral, Rev.Fr. Balthazar Ndyomugabe said that as church leaders, they will continue to follow guidelines from the government like having less than seven people in the church service for the success of the wedding.

“The scientific weddings are more orderly compared to the other public weddings since they are timely, as he advised couples who had planned for weddings not to postpone instead use the scientific wedding method since the expenditure is lower as long as the couple follows the guidelines,” Fr. Ndyomugabe

Amutuhaire explained that he had no option since the date had been set and could not be postponed, however, he acknowledged missing the company of her relatives and friends.

“I advise those who had organised weddings in this COVID-19 pandemic period to wed since no one can predict when the pandemic will end”.said Amutuhaire.

Following the confirmation of COVID-19, the government of Uganda moved to closed schools and places of worship as well as banning public gatherings in efforts to curb the spread of deadly coronavirus.

President Museveni then advised religious leaders only to hold “scientific weddings” of not more than 10 people in attendance.

“The big “hexagonal Ugandan-style” weddings can easily spread the virus as they attract a large gathering of people. Those ones remain banned,” President Museveni sustained.

On April 14, President Museveni, after consulting with Cabinet, extended the lock-down by 21 days – taking effect Wednesday, April 15 to May 5, 2020 under the same measures..

Ministry of Health, on Saturday, April 18, revealed that all 1,126 samples have tested negative at the Uganda Virus Research Institute (UVRI),

“Out of 1,126 tested on Saturday, 837 were from truck drivers and the other 289 were from individuals in quarantine and contacts of confirmed cases,” Dr. Aceng said.

Dr Jane Ruth Aceng said Uganda has a cumulative number of 55 confirmed cases, of these, 22 have recovered while 33 are active cases.