High food prices deter Muslims from fasting

With barely three days into the month of Ramadan, a section of Muslims have decried  the skyrocketing prices of food stuffs and other essential commodities, saying it is hindering them from fully observing the holy month.

Speaking to Daily Monitor, Ms Fatuma Nalwoga, a resident of Makerere Kikoni near Kampala, said she has failed to fast because her family cannot afford the meal eaten at dawn and also at sunrise.

“We are not well off but we would like to observe this holy month but the price of food stuffs has gone up, and since we are many in the family, we cannot afford food to eat before fasting and also to break the fast,” Ms Nalwoga  said yesterday.

She appealed to government to reduce the commodity prices.

“The government should do something about the high commodity prices because we are suffering. Even the little money we have cannot buy a decent meal for the family,” she  added.

Another Muslim faithful, Sharifah Nabatanzi, a resident of the same area, asked well-wishers to share with them food so that they can also observe fasting.

Dr Muhammad Kiggundu Musoke, the spokesperson of Kibuli Muslim faction, said the leadership is planning to hold a meeting to find ways on how to support the faithful who can’t afford food.

Promise support
“I call upon Muslims who are near to these needy people to identify them and help us reach out to them so that they can be helped and be able to observe this very important pillar of Islam,”  Dr Kiggundu said yesterday

In the past few weeks, prices of essential commodities in the country have drastically shot up with government attributing the economic situation to the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war, among other factors.