FAMINE has started claiming lives in various parts of the country.
Several MPs recently reported that families are starving in the hardest hit areas, with people dying as a result.
Simon Oyet (FDC) said three pupils and their guardian had died of hunger in his constituency (Nwoya county) due to starvation.
MPs from Teso region reported that people were losing weight because of the hunger.
Reagan Okumu (FDC) said the Government was aware of the food shortage, but waited for people to die.
Franca Akello (FDC) said enrolment in schools had dropped by half due to the persistent hunger.
She cited Lagire Primary School where a class of 150 pupils now has 70.
The MPs were debating a report by the disaster preparedness minister, Tarsis Kabwegyere, on the feminine situation in the country.
Kabwegyere told the House that the Cabinet met on June 22 and discussed food security. He said as a result, sh10b had been released to the office of the Prime Minister to supply food to people facing feminine.
“The Government is aware of the magnitude of the problem. All parts of the country facing food shortage will be served,” Kabwegyere promised.
The minister said the World Food Programme would also provide food aid.
He said about three million people were food insecure.
Kabwegyere attributed the problem to climate change.
“In some areas rainfall was below normal and came late. This caused stress to crops that had already been planted,” he said.
The minister said people needed to be mobilisation to increase productivity and plant perennial food crops and cash crops that can be harvested over a long period of time.
“Food security is primarily a family responsibility. The Government only comes on when there are circumstances beyond their control like drought,” Kabwegyere stated.
He, however, added that the Government was not pleased to hear that people were dying. “If people die mourners will eat all the food,” he noted.
Louis Opange (Independent) demanded for a list of areas the Government is going to supply food to, while Gutomoi Angiro (Independent) wanted to know what foodstuffs would be distributed.
Angiro also wondered why the Government had not started an irrigation scheme, saying food shortage would not end in Karamoja. The region has depended on food relief since 1964.
Rose Namayanja called for a comprehensive national strategy to combat feminine, while Oliver Wonekha (NRM) said the Government was not dealing with the real problem.
“This is fire fighting. We are treating symptoms. Is that disaster preparedness? Uganda was known as a food basket in the region,” she said.
