Security committee halts relief food distribution to teachers in Kitgum

Kitgum, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | Kitgum district security committee has stopped the distribution of food relief to private school teachers in the district by a group named Food for Teachers.

The group had launched a fundraising drive to support teachers in 30 private schools and tertiary institutions in Kitgum municipality who are enduring economic hardships as a result of the school closures. Richard Ojara Okwera, the leader of the drive said the campaign yielded seven million shillings in cash and three million Shillings in pledges over a period of three months.

The money was used to procure over 500, 10-kilogram bags of maize flour for distribution to over 500 private school teachers. However, according to Ojara, the food distribution was stopped on Saturday by the District Internal Security Officer (DISO) and the District Police Commander (DPC)  on grounds that the distributors never sought permission to run the drive.

The food relief distribution exercise that commenced on Wednesday had already served 16 schools of Pandwong and the Central division leaving out private school teachers from 14 schools of Pager division. Ojara however says that they had sought clearance from the district security committee and the district COVID-19 taskforce to embark on the campaign.

But the Kitgum Resident District Commissioner William Komakech says they were only enforcing directives issued by the president to ensure that the district COVID-19 task force is in tandem with all activities and ensure that prevention guidelines are nor discarded. According to Komakech, the presidential directive requires anyone intending to distribute relief items to hand the donation to the taskforce for subsequent distribution to the intended beneficiaries.

Komakech also alleges that the campaign was presumed political since Ojara who is spearheading the drive is an aspirant who has already expressed interest in contesting for the Kitgum municipality mayoral seat in the forthcoming general elections.

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