Karamoja Hunger Response Plan
MPs Ask Govt to Bail out Households with 100K Each
The parliamentary forum on social protection wants the government to provide one hundred thousand shillings (100,000) to each household in the Karamoja region to help them overcome hunger and starvation that is killing people in the sub-region.
According to reports over 900 people have died of hunger-related diseases due to poor harvests and drought in the Karamoja sub-region. Despite a 130bn response plan by the government and aid from other partners who have sent food relief to the region, the death toll has not come to end. This has seen the parliamentary forum on social protection come up with a proposal for the government to bail out each household of 100,000 shillings.
Addressing a news conference at parliament the chairperson of the forum who is also the Kyegegwa district woman MP Flavia Kabahenda noted that this should be done to enable families to have choices of food to supplement food relief provided by the government.
She also called on the government to use the Karamoja situation as a case study to prepare hunger response packages for other parts of the country that are facing similar challenges.
Meanwhile, a section of members of parliament including Theodore Ssekikubo (Lwemiyaga County), Barnabas Tinkasimire (Buyaga West), and Maurice Kibalya (Bugabula South) have expressed displeasure with the lack of practical and immediate solutions by the government to solve the current economic hardships. MPs claim that President Museveni’s address yesterday fell short of tangible solutions.
