Muslims ask government to distribute food in Ramadan

The Muslim community yesterday asked government to grant them permission and special arrangement to distribute food among the faithful who are slated to start fasting next week.
Mr Muhammod Kibaate, the chief executive officer of House of Zakah and Waqf, yesterday said Ramadan starts next week on April 24, and there are some Muslims who cannot feed themselves during the fasting period.
Mr Kibaate said the current distribution of food will not favour those who will be fasting since government will not be able to differentiate those who are fasting and those who are not.

“We are asking government to grant us permission to be able to distribute some food to our believers during Ramadan.If they give us some officials to walk with to distribute this food, we shall go with that,” Mr Kibaate said.
He said they usually feed more than 7,000 Muslims across the country in one month.
Mr Kibaate was handing over four tonnes of maize flour to the Office of the Prime Minister towards the poor Ugandans who cannot afford food during coronavirus lockdown.

Other companies that gave donations yesterday include Bidco which gave out products and money amounting to Shs505m.
Mr Henry Tumusiime, the head of human resource and corporate affairs, said they are heeding to the cry of President Museveni to help their needy customers during this period.
Mr Tumusiime said the company had donated Shs70m, three trucks of their products and one new vehicle.
Bar Owners and Restaurants Association donated 560 cartons of milk to pregnant mothers, 200 cartons of water and 10 pieces of 100-litre water tanks.

Bars donate Shs16m
Mr Tessfalem Gherativ, the association’s chairperson, said they had managed to collect Shs16m from 100 bars and restaurants across the country.
Other companies include Age-nior Club with 2,500 bags of maize flour, Lake Bounty group donated one pick-up truck, Eco Bank (Shs80m) while Team Thorough YMK donated two tonnes of maize flour.

Ms Mary Karooro Okurut, the State Minister for General Duties, said the food is taken to Nakawa for quality test before being distributed.
Ms Okurut, however, said the cash will be used to buy vehicles for health centres and other protective gear.
She said they would discuss the Muslim proposal of distributing food.
President Museveni said government had collected more than Shs3 billion and 31 vehicles.
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