There is a painful irony in what is happening in our profession this week.
As leaders of National Medical Associations from across Africa gather in Livingstone, Zambia, for the CANMA Leadership Training, supported by the World Medical Association – WMA, eight young health professionals are appearing before a court in neighbouring Uganda.
Their alleged offence?
According to the charge sheet, they are accused of “being a nuisance on a public road” after assembling on Parliamentary Avenue in Kampala on 12 August 2026, dressed in their white coats and carrying placards bearing messages including:
“SAY NO TO NETH POLICY.”
“NO PAY, NO REPORTING.”
“FOR THE GOOD OF ALL UGANDANS PAY ALL MEDICAL INTERNS.”
They had been seeking to take their concerns to Parliament.
For this, they were arrested.
What were the interns asking for?
At the heart of this dispute is something remarkably basic: if you deploy medical interns to hospitals and expect them to work, how are they supposed to eat, find accommodation and transport themselves to work?
Uganda’s Ministry of Health issued its placement communication for the August 2026–July 2027 internship year, requiring interns to report to their respective stations on 3 August 2026.
But compare this with the past.
A Ministry of Health internship deployment letter from 2017 expressly stated that the Ministry headquarters would prepare the intern’s monthly allowance.
Go further back to 1996, and an appointment letter for an intern clearly stated the salary payable, together with the terms and conditions of appointment.
The principle was therefore understood decades ago:
You cannot deploy an intern without addressing how that intern will live.
Yet in 2026, young health professionals are being asked to report for an extraordinarily demanding year of clinical work without the financial security traditionally attached to that deployment.
This dispute did not emerge from nowhere. In June 2026, Uganda’s Parliament itself reported that government would review the decision to stop paying medical interns. The Vice-President, H.E. Jessica Alupo, acknowledged the concern and indicated that Cabinet would discuss the proposed policy. Medical leaders have subsequently continued to raise serious objections to the new internship framework. 
The Uganda Medical Association has now stood firmly with the interns and demanded adequate facilitation, including a monthly internship allowance.
And now eight young health professionals find themselves before the criminal justice system.
That should concern every doctor in Africa.
Lessons from Kenya
We have been here before.
Kenyan medicine has repeatedly taught us that the profession must stand together when the rights and dignity of doctors are threatened.
One of the stories passed down through the Kenya Medical Association concerns the doctors’ industrial action at Kenyatta National Hospital in the early 1970s and the detention of doctors including Dr Aluoch Joseph Thr KMA lawyer Makecha got the doctors out of jail after a weekend in.
Dr Aluoch would subsequently become one of the great institutional elders of KMA. Generations later, when KMA has faced difficult internal or external challenges, we have continued to turn to Joe for his wisdom.
History has a strange way of remembering those who stand up when standing up is difficult.
Then came 2017.
Seven officials of the KENYA Medical Practitioners, Pharmacists and Dentists’ UNION — the famous CBA7 — were jailed during the doctors’ strike over implementation of the Collective Bargaining Agreement.
The response of the profession was extraordinary.
The Kenya Medical Association announced the withdrawal of medical services from public, private and faith-based facilities for 48 hours in solidarity with the imprisoned doctors. The message was simple: you cannot imprison the representatives of doctors who are negotiating over legitimate professional grievances and expect the rest of the profession to behave as though nothing has happened. 
The seven were released by the Court of Appeal on 15 February 2017, two days after being jailed, and negotiations were ordered to resume. 
That episode demonstrated something immensely important:
A profession divided can be intimidated.
A profession united has a powerful voice.
Uganda’s doctors must stand with their interns
It is therefore deeply encouraging to see the large numbers of Ugandan doctors who have turned up in court in their white coats in solidarity with these young colleagues.
That white coat means something.
It represents a profession.
It represents service.
It represents generations of doctors standing behind the newest members of our fraternity.
The Uganda Medical Association has also publicly demanded the release of the arrested interns and condemned the use of arrest, detention and prosecution to address a dispute fundamentally concerning internship welfare and working conditions.
Across the border, KMPDU has now also called for the interns’ immediate release, arguing that peacefully demanding fair treatment, timely deployment and dignified working conditions is a legitimate labour concern. 
That regional solidarity is important.
This is also a patient-safety issue
The subspecialty associations of Uganda should add their voices.
Physicians.
Surgeons.
Obstetricians and gynaecologists.
Paediatricians.
Anaesthesiologists.
Psychiatrists.
Radiologists.
Every professional association whose consultants supervise interns should say clearly to the Ministry of Health:
An exhausted, hungry and financially distressed medical intern is a patient-safety risk.
Internship is not an ordinary classroom exercise.
The intern is examining patients, responding to emergencies, assisting and performing procedures under supervision, prescribing medicines, reviewing critically ill patients, conducting deliveries and frequently spending nights within hospitals.
Food matters.
Shelter matters.
Transport matters.
Rest matters.
A decent livelihood matters.
These are not luxuries.
They are prerequisites for safe clinical practice.
Indeed, Uganda’s own National Education and Training for Health framework describes internship as a “high-risk transition period” requiring supervision, institutional accountability and standards designed to protect patients and interns. 
The medical intern is the foundation of the profession
Every consultant was once an intern.
Every professor was once an intern.
Every medical association president was once an intern.
How we treat the youngest members of our profession tells us what we believe the profession is worth.
Kenya recently went through its own battle over intern remuneration. The medical profession resisted attempts to erode gains that had been achieved over many years regarding intern pay and conditions.
There is therefore a lesson for the whole continent:
Rights that were fought for by one generation of doctors must not quietly be taken away from the next.
CANMA must speak
This matter now goes beyond Uganda.
The Coalition of African National Medical Associations exists partly because African doctors need a collective continental voice.
As we meet in Livingstone discussing leadership, advocacy and the strengthening of National Medical Associations, eight young health professionals are facing criminal charges arising from a protest over the conditions under which they are expected to enter our profession.
CANMA should therefore call for:
1. The immediate release of the #UMA8 and a fair, rights-respecting resolution of the charges arising from their peaceful professional advocacy.
2. Immediate dialogue between the Government of Uganda, Ministry of Health, Uganda Medical Association and representatives of the medical interns.
3. Clear written provisions on remuneration or allowances in internship deployment arrangements before interns are required to report to duty.
4. Protection of medical interns and their representatives from intimidation or victimisation for raising legitimate welfare and professional concerns.
5. A review of the internship policy through genuine consultation with the medical profession, universities, professional councils, interns and other health-professional organisations.
And where the actions of state institutions against the interns have been excessive, those institutions should acknowledge this and make amends.
Medical interns are not the enemies of the health system.
They are its future.
Taking care of the medical intern is taking care of the medical profession.
Taking care of the medical profession is ultimately taking care of the patient.
Today it is eight interns in a Ugandan courtroom.
Tomorrow it could be young doctors anywhere on our continent.
That is why the African medical profession must speak with one voice:
RELEASE THE UGANDA 8.
#UMA8
#ReleaseTheUganda8
#MedicalInterns
#UgandaMedicalAssociation
#CANMA
#DoctorsRights
#PatientSafety
#HealthWorkforce
Dr Simon Kigondu
Commentator on the evolution of healthcare workforce rights