RDC queries relief food distribution breakdown, demands more for Wakiso

Wakiso, Uganda |  THE INDEPENDENT |  Wakiso Resident District Commissioner Rose Kirabira has questioned the coverage of the recently concluded food distribution exercise, saying that majority of the people in her area never received the relief.  

The exercise which was aimed at supporting the most vulnerable families affected by the partial lockdown due to COVID -19, started in Kampala on April 4, before extending to Wakiso and Mukono districts. According to the Office of the Prime Minister, up to 12,000 tons of maize flour and 5,000 tons of beans were procured to feed 1.5 million people during the lockdown.  

Each family member was supposed to receive six kilograms of maize flour and three kilograms of beans. The sick, the elderly and lactating mothers, were also given sugar and milk, to complement the package. According to State Minister for ICT Peter Ogwang, the government had distributed relief food to 1,868,320 people in Kampala district alone by May 28. At the time, distribution was still ongoing in Wakiso.  

But the RDC Rose Kirabira says relief food for wakiso district was only distributed in the areas of Nansana, Kasokoso and South of Nabweru division, covering a dismal fraction of the population of the area.  

She contends that Wakiso’s population has soared far beyond what was captured during the 2014 National Housing and Population Census upon which the distribution of food relief was based. The district which partly encircles Kampala is estimated to have a population of about 3 million people, yet during the census, it had less than two million people, according to a record by the Uganda Bureau of Statistics.      

Kirabira says that families are starving, even after the government eased lockdowns because many of them are still not allowed to work, yet several others have lost jobs.  “Some people have moved to their villages after the easing of the lockdown but there is also a section which has no villages to run to and they are stuck here in Wakiso,” she said.   

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