KAMPALA – The Office of the Prime Minister (OPM) and Disaster Management has on Tuesday entered fourth day of distributing food to less privileged around the city.
The OPM is being helped by the UPDF, Uganda Police Force and Local Defence Units in conjunction with the Local Council authorities to distribute food to the vulnerable people of Kampala and Wakiso districts.
Col Darlington Mugisha, the director of Logistics at the Uganda Peoples’Defence Forces – Air force (UPDF-AF) who is the Kawempe team leader, has said that people should stay in their homes as a way of reducing the spread of COVID 19.
“We are working with the office of the prime minister and that of disaster preparedness to deliver food that was authorized by the President to be given to the needy,” he said.
The food items include posho, beans, powdered milk, sugar and salt. Each family is supposed to get a 6 Kgs bag of posho and 3Kgs of beans
The teams are on ground moving door to door and the local authorities plus the volunteers from the Red Cross are helping to identify the most vulnerable groups in their areas who are first priority.
Mr SSembajjwe Musa Nkunyinyi the LC1 Chairperson of Kulumba Zone, Bwaise 1 Parish Kawempe Division said that the exercise so far has gone on well in his zone because they are working as a team to make sure that everyone gets food at home.
“We have covered almost the entire zone but I urge those people who have not yet been reached to be patient and stay at home because food is going to reach to them. The picture I have seen today is different from what I have been hearing concerning the LDUs, I have seen the LDUs carry food items on their heads delivering it to the needy, from the start of this food distribution I have not heard anyone complaining of them and this has shown me that people see security agencies as their sons and daughters but not enemies,” said Mr Ssembajjwe.
Food distribution was launched by the Rt Hon Prime minister Dr Ruhakana Rugunda on April 4, 2020, in Bwaise I Kawempe Division as a way of supporting those groups whose daily means of survival have been drastically affected by current measures to stem the spread of the pandemic.
Since the outbreak of COVID 19 these people have not been working.
