Speaker Rebecca Kadaga has publicly criticised government agencies for delays in distributing sunscreen to people with albinism in Uganda.
A parliamentary session in Kampala turned pointed last week when Speaker Rebecca Kadaga called out government agencies by name for failing to move sunscreen supplies to the people who need them.
The rebuke, reported by the Daily Monitor, focused on delays in a programme designed to provide free or subsidised sun protection to people with albinism across Uganda. Kadaga directed her criticism at the agencies responsible for procurement and distribution, according to the report.
People with albinism produce little or no melanin, the pigment that helps protect skin from ultraviolet radiation. Without consistent access to high-SPF sunscreen, the risk of sunburn, skin damage, and skin cancer rises significantly — a fact that makes distribution delays more than administrative failure.
A longstanding gap
Uganda has maintained a sunscreen support programme for the albinism community for several years, but access has remained uneven. The Daily Monitor reported that recipients in some areas have waited months between supplies, leaving people to source protection at personal cost or go without.
Kadaga's intervention signals that the issue has reached a threshold where parliamentary pressure is now being applied directly. Her remarks, as reported, were unambiguous: the delays are unacceptable, and the responsible agencies should account for them.
Sunscreen, for people with albinism, is not a cosmetic product. Dermatologists and albinism organisations consistently describe it as a medical necessity — equivalent in importance to other forms of preventive healthcare.
The Under the Sun organisation and similar groups operating across East Africa have documented how gaps in sunscreen access correlate with higher rates of skin cancer in the albinism community, particularly in equatorial countries where UV exposure is year-round.
Kadaga's public rebuke may accelerate movement on a programme that has stalled at the delivery stage. Whether that translates into supply reaching communities is a question the Daily Monitor has not yet reported an answer to.
A speaker's floor statement is one instrument of accountability. The longer measure is whether supplies reach clinic shelves before the next dry season begins.
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