By Henry Mukasa

THE Kenyan government has donated 123 metric tonnes of relief food worth sh364m to the people displaced by the landslide in Bududa.

At least 5,320 people from 899 households registered for urgent food and relief supplies.

The relief was delivered by Kenya’s provincial commissioner for western province, Samuel Kalele, and handed over to Prime Minister Apolo Nsibambi at Lwakhakha border post yesterday.

Kalele represented Kenya’s vice-president, Kalonzo Musyoka, who could not make it because his helicopter developed mechanical problems and made an emergency landing at Kabala in Eldoret. Ironically, on his way back to Kampala, the helicopter Nsibambi was travelling in crash-landed in Bugiri district.

Kalele said he had travelled on the directive of Kenyan president Mwai Kibaki. “We have come to say pole (sorry) to Ugandans. We have cordial relations and when we are here, we feel at home,” he told Nsibambi.

He handed over 63 metric tonnes of maize, 30 tonnes of rice, 20 of beans and 10 of cooking oil. The items were delivered on lorries offered by the Kenya Red Cross.

The Government of Uganda offered 26 metric tonnes of relief food to the affected people. Kalele was accompanied by Bungoma MP Eugene Wamalwa and security and government officials.

Nsibambi thanked the government of Kenya for the “timely” gesture. “You are excellent neighbours. We enjoy a reciprocal relationship,” he said.
The Prime Minister moved to the bridge over River Manafwa that separates the two countries to symbolically receive the goods.

The Kenyan High Commissioner to Uganda, Japheth Ratemo Getugi, said the bond between the two countries is like that of Siamese twins. “Some people say Uganda and Kenya relations are like a marriage. In marriage you have an option of divorce. We cannot divorce. We are like Siamese twins. If you disconnect us, both of us die.”

The function was attended by the PS in the Prime Minister’s Office, Pius Bigirimana, the director emergency relief coordination and evacuation, Maj. Gen. Julius Oketta, the UPDF division commander, Brig. Patrick Kankiriho, the regional Police commander, the district chairmen of Manafwa and Bududa, as well as area MPs.