Janet urges Karamoja MPs to monitor food aid distribution

The First Lady and minister for Karamoja affairs, Janet Museveni, has urged MPs from the Karamoja region to actively involve themselves in the monitoring of the food aid distribution by Government so as to ensure that the vulnerable people in the communities do not miss out on the rations.

This comes at a time when there is food shortage in the region.

Despite Government's effort through the Office of the Prime Minister's department of relief, disaster preparedness and management to distribute food in the affected areas, the most vulnerable people still miss out on these rations and have been left to suffer hunger-related repercussions.   

While meeting the NRM MPs elect from the 10 constituencies in Karamoja at Kyankwanzi State Lodge, on the sidelines of the NRM party retreat last week, Mrs. Museveni said Government has been monitoring the hunger situation in Karamoja and has made dispatches of food aid to the most affected areas.

The retreat at the National Leadership Institute Kyankwanzi was for the party's recently elected MPs.

The First Lady said it is disturbing that often, this food has been given to those who are not the most vulnerable, some of it is sold off, while some Local Governments do not distribute this food to the communities and instead leave it in the stores.

She reiterated her earlier call to the leaders from Karamoja to identify and register all the most vulnerable families in the sub-region, saying this will help the Government to avoid haphazard food aid distribution during the lean seasons.

Mrs. Museveni also recommended the need to devise a sustainable strategy of taking care of all elderly people who are always vulnerable during times of food shortage.

Meanwhile, she said she is proud of Karamoja for overwhelmingly voting President Museveni and the NRM party in the recently concluded elections.

President Museveni got 97% in Karamoja region and 17 NRM MPs were elected in the region plus only two independents who are also NRM-leaning.

The elected Karamoja MPs said the prolonged drought in the region had affected all the districts and people across the board. They thanked Government for the food relief it has so far sent to their people but requested for more so as to cover all the areas in need.

The parliamentarians also recommended that for sustainability, when Government is distributing the food aid, drought-resistant and quick-maturing seeds should be given out simultaneously to the communities so that they can plant as soon as the first rains come.

The Karimojong appreciated President Museveni for his love for them and for making his wife their Minister. They requested the President to let her continue to be the Karamoja Affairs Minister when he names his new cabinet.

The State Minister for Disaster Preparedness, Musa Ecweru, who also attended the meeting, assured the First Lady and the Karamoja MPs that his department would start delivering the food aid in the villages and not at the sub-counties where the leaders have been misusing their authority.

He said he will ensure this by dispatching a fueled small truck alongside the trailer to ferry the food to the actual identified villages.