The hungry vulnerable community in Kampala and Wakiso districts want the government to devise means for speedy distribution of relief items that they claim have not yet reached far and wide since the start of the program on Saturday.
They are crying of extreme hunger and starvation two days after the government commenced the distribution of food items across the country with the above-mentioned districts.
The government on Saturday started the exercise in the crowded suburb of Bwaise in Kampala with a door-to-door food distribution of 6kgs of Maize flour per head,3kgs of beans per head, powdered milk and 2kgs of sugar as an addition for the Pregnant mothers among other items.
Prime Minister Dr. Ruhakana Rugunda who spearheaded the exercise revealed that among the vulnerable groups prioritized to benefit in the nationwide exercise are the elderly, sick and hospitalized, orphanages, pregnant mothers among others.
“We have today flagged off a government relief food distribution program to vulnerable individuals who have been affected by lockdown measures,” Rugunda said.
However desperate masses from the communities of Mende and Kiwuunya in Wakiso district have started impatiently complaining that they are not seeing any results and wonder what is taking the government so long.
The majority of residents in Kampala and Wakiso district that interacted with this Website claim that people who have been out of business for the past two weeks have reached a breaking point and are at the brink of dying from hunger.
On Wednesday the Prime minister Dr.Ruhakana Rugunda said the Office of the Prime Minister-OPM was planning to start the distribution of foodstuffs to a total of 1.5m vulnerable groups in Wakiso and Kampala including 6kgs of Maize flour,3kgs of beans per head, powdered milk for the Pregnant mothers 2kgs of sugar each person among other items.
However, this generated heated debate in parliament with a majority of the MPs halting the exercise and claiming the process of distribution is discriminatory and doesn’t accommodate people in rural areas who are also affected and in a worse state.
The MPs suggested a modest fee be sent to people in rural communities in a structured system through mobile money to enable them to shop.
This didn’t stop the OPM from proceeding with its executive mandate of distributing the food relief that is currently ongoing in the two districts and is expected to roll out to other parts of Uganda.
