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Moroto, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | The police in Moroto district has recovered 18 bags of posho worth 7 million Shillings suspected to have been stolen from the relief food stores in Moroto municipality.
The food was recovered on Wednesday following a tip-off from concerned members who saw bags of posho being offloaded from an ungazetted place.
Micheal Longole, the Mt Moroto Regional Police Spokesperson says that the relief food was found in the home of Sophia Nakoroi in Camp Swahili Juu, Southern division, Moroto municipality.
Longole said they found 18 bags of posho packed in an empty semi-permanent house. He added that they impounded and took it to Moroto Central Police Station pending investigations.
He said a group of people alleged that the posho was supposed to be distributed to a specific group of people who were not described.
Longole says that the police will continue to keep an eye on the relief food distribution exercise to ensure that the food reaches the intended beneficiaries.
Meanwhile in Lotisan sub-county, the locals blamed their area local chairperson for extorting money from them for registration in order to benefit from the food relief.
Maria Lokwii, a resident of Atedeoi village in Mogoth parish said the LC1s were charging them 1,000 to 2000 to register for relief food. Okwii said the people in charge of registration claimed that the money paid is for their airtime for mobilization.
Mary Gorretti Kitutu, the Minister for Karamoja Affairs noted that her ministry has already received reports that some parish chiefs who are tasked to lead the distribution exercise have started hiding some food while other people are being excluded from the list of beneficiaries.
According to her, it is vital that food relief reaches those who most need it, and people managing the exercise should avoid diverting food assistance.
She instructed the Resident District Commissioners and Chief Administration Officers to take charge and ensure that whoever is sabotaging the food distribution exercise is arrested.
The government is currently scaling up its food relief distributions to reach as many as 1.2 million severely hungry people in Karamoja. Each household will get 20 kilograms of maize flour and 10 kilograms of beans.
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