Government to provide maize flour, beans to vulnerable people

Prime Minister, Dr Ruhakana Rugunda

What you need to know:

  • United. Secretary Generals of all political parties under the Inter-party Organization for Dialogue (IPOD) have been co-opted to the National Task Force. These parties are; National Resistance Movement (NRM), Forum for Democratic Change (FDC), Uganda People’s Congress (UPC), Democratic Party (DP) and Justice Forum (Jeema).

Government will this weekend kickstart distribution of food and other essential items to a total of 1.5m vulnerable people in Kampala and Wakiso districts as a way of mitigating the hash impact of Covid-19.
Prime Minister, Dr Ruhakana Rugunda, told Parliament yesterday that the distribution of food will be done at the Local Council one level to easily identify those who are supposed to receive relief from government.
Dr Rugunda said that each person will be given 6kgs of maize flour (posho) and 3kgs of beans whereas lactating mother and the sick will receive powered milk and 2kgs of sugar each.
“The government will start the district of food relief to 1.2million people in Kampala and Wakiso district. We will give 6kgs of maize flour per head and 3kgs of beans per head,” the Prime Minister said.
However, the Prime Minister did not break down the categories of people supposed to benefit from the food relief and the procedure through which they will be identified.
While addressing the nation on Monday and Tuesday on new measures aimed at containing covid-19 in country, President Museveni said government will provide food to people who have been earning money on a daily basis. Mr Museveni mentioned those who work in public transport sector which was banned last week. The President also halted the initiatives by individual politicians who had started distributing food to some of their constituents, describing their action as “seeking cheap popularity”.
Dr Rugunda said that the process of supplying food will be carried out by the National Task Force Sub-committee on relief which is chaired by State minister for Disaster Preparedness,Mr Musa Ecweru.
However, Parliament deferred a full debate on the Prime Minister’s statement to today as MPs needed more time to exhaust their issues on the matter.
Plenary will today start at 10am and the Finance Minister, Matia Kasaija will also present a statement on the magnitude of covid-19 implication on the economy.