Amputees and people with physical disabilities have asked government to scrap taxes on artificial limbs. 

They say they are financially incapacitated yet they need the items for support to improve their productivity.

Sheikh Muhamadi Ngobi, the Imam of Buseyi Mosque in Iganga Municipality, who was amputated due to diabetes, on Tuesday said his prosthetic leg was made from Mulago hospital at Shs 1.2m, but it is “too heavy” compared to a normal leg.

“The prosthetic legs are very expensive and I can’t afford them; the one which I bought at Shs 1.2m is too heavy but I have nothing to do, except to appeal to the government to think about us as he does to other categories of people like the elderly,’’ he said.

Mr James Mudiba, a resident of Kasokoso Village in Iganga Municipality, who was amputated following an accident, said government should relieve them of the taxes to allow them resume daily activities. “Most of us had all the body parts, but accidents, diseases left us amputated. There are alternatives like artificial limbs but we can’t afford them,’’ he said.

Ms Irene Kabale, the chairperson of Busoga Rural Development Agency, who is one of the amputees, said the process of getting an artificial leg is not easy.

Ms Kabale, who survived diabetes after one leg was amputated, said the artificial limb was paid for by the Minister for the Presidency, Ms Milly Babalanda, at Shs3.5m.

Ms Kabale urged government to donate artificial limbs to all amputees who are financially-incapacitated.

“Government is giving out artificial limbs to army officers who lost their legs or arms in war. It should also do the same to other Ugandans who are amputees due to accidents and diseases by setting up a centre where they can receive them on a regional basis,’’ she said. 

Ms Betty Irene Tamwizanga, the Reproductive Sexual Rights Officer of Integrated Disabled Women Activities, an Iganga-based organisation, said they are requesting the government to remove taxes on artificial limbs so that they are affordable to the most-vulnerable person in the village.

“We [people who work with people with disabilities or amputates] face a challenge of acquiring those artificial legs or hands due to the fact that they are too costly to most of our people,’’ she said.

Ms Tamwizanga said taxes should be scrapped so that organisations can afford them and donate them.

She added: “We request the government to put aside some money for people with disabilities like it does for other categories of people”

Mr Derrick Mwesi, a health worker at Ortho Health services in Najjanankumbi, said the government should reduce the taxes on imported materials that are used to make artificial limbs so that they can be affordable to all amputees.

“Eighty percent of people with disabilities cannot afford those artificial appliances when the taxes are high,’’ he said, adding that when a person’s leg is amputated up to the knee, the artificial limb costs as much as Shs3m.

He added: “When taxes are reduced, we can import these artificial limbs in large quantities and donate even to the needy.”

Ms Esther Mirembe, a nurse in Buyende District, said many amputees in rural areas are finding it difficult to move because they can’t buy the [expensive] artificial limbs which cost between Shs2m and 4m.

As a result, she said some have resorted to buying locally-made artificial legs which cost between Sh500,000 and Shs1m.  “But because they are too heavy, they end up abandoning them in their houses,’’ she said. By Tausi Nakato, Daily Monitor