Lydiah Namayengo writes:-
As the Fountain of Honor addressed Ugandans and gave updates about #COVID19 pandemic on 14th April 2020, he gave the history of the previous prevention measures for #COVID19 issued as Presidential directives to Uganda that mainly emphasised people’s washing hands, keeping social distance as they #StayHome to #StaySafe.
However, ur utterences on survival needs especially feeding in terms of relief and food distribution to the people were neither human, fair, just nor inclusive in regards to Ugandans.
U first asserted that anybody or any politician found distributing food to people inorder to do politics or look for popularity will not only have committed a crime but will also be charged of “Attempted Murder” and punished accordingly, a move u presumed to be about maintaining social distance to prevent #COVID19, but from what we have seen, you, your Ministers and Millitary have not in any way observed the social distance in the distribution of food and have typically done it with exception of the local leaders in those communities of Kampala even when they are for opposition.
So by u refusing leaders to give out food but then do it yourself through Ministers, are u still safeguarding people or aren’t u also doing politics that u refused the opposition and other partners to engage in terms of indirect campaigning?!
U asserted that fod distribution will only be done in Kampala, Wakiso and Mukono Districts and later spread which I don’t think will practically happen. Because u know that urban politics influences rural politics, u began in Kampala such that u can silence the people especially in the ghettos and politically active or aware population whose reaction would have spread like wild fire and exploded on the rural communities as well. So are u really fighting #COVID19 or u are driving your political campaign to control Kampala and Uganda inorder to win the 2021 elections?!
U continuously emphasised that food relief was to be distributed to the urban poor who depend on daily income earning (Leja leja) like the bodabodas, saloons, bars, clubs etc which u think only exist in Kampala Metropolitan area but I want to remind u that 60%of Uganda’s population both in rural and urban areas depends on daily income earning for survival.
This includes all towns, villages, and town councils in districts all over Uganda who therefore are also not working or even earning any money in this Lock down. There fore distribution of food in Kampala only is unfair, un just and non inclusive because all Ugandans deserve relief. Any way I don’t blame u because u are far away detached from the reality and yet those near you can’t tell u the truth because they automatically benefit from the Lock down
U mentioned that #COVID19 has not stopped people in the villages to plant their cassava in the garden but I want to remind u that majority people sold their land to take their children to school, which education has also lost value and hve failed to get jobs, while others have small land but are far away from where they stay and therefore can’t reach garden due to lack of public transport to reach there, so how do u expect them to survive? Don’t they also deserve to get food relief since they also survive on selling simple items on the streets of their villages and small towns??!
Your assertion that all salary earners must not get food because they will be paid by their employers was outrageous & a failure to cater for their survival at a strategic level.
Key to note is that 50%of the employed Uganda’s population works in private sector, which has partially or fully layed off their staff, thus loosing jobs while others can’t pay them either because the companies and businesses are nolonger working because they are not part of essential services, or don’t have enough income anymore to pay their staff or can’t travel to come for work coz they lack public transport!!
So apart from the about 25% who may be civil servants that may also get their salary after 3-6 months, and 20% in Civil society which u already sabotaged, had their accounts freeze and others closed before #COVID19 for fear of creating awareness about the 2021 election, don’t these people also deserve food relief for survival or have u decided to neglect their survival needs?!
Remember that most of these salary earners have no savings either due to the high cost of living or because they earn little and yet Uganda’s money has no value: and have been surviving on salary loans which banks and microfinance institutions are almost killing them due to the stress that comes with its demand!! So by failing to cater for their survival through food relief, aren’t u sacrificing them to die of hunger than #COVID19?!
U mentioned about considering to save the donations & relief money for future use in terms of constructing roads, schools, and hospitals but I find this very ridiculous, a diversion or misuse of resources and a promotion of corruption.!
Every financial year, Uganda makes a National budget which for the last 34 years your government has claimed to be prioritising infrastructural development especially road construction in theory, so how dare u divert donations for food that few people have sacrificed to help out the majority hungry that your government has failed to give sustainable income and food security and claim to use it for roads and schools!! Aren’t u just promoting corruption by diverting these resources and ignoring the survival needs of the majority population who all need food to survive for now?!!
U assert that #COVID19 donation money is not an Anti-poverty alleviation program so if u are poor now and was poor before #COVID19, u should feed like u have been feeding before.
First of all, Uganda has never had an effective Anti poverty alleviation program as it has only been having exploitation opportunities for Mafias in government to become rich and loot Ugandans!.
But what u have also forgotten is that, majority of those poor are dependants on those daily income earners who stay in towns and town councils who share with them their daily income earned, so when the ‘Leja Leja’ stop working, even the other poor people can’t eat and survive due to the high dependency syndrome in Uganda and Africa at large. So by failing to include them in part of the food relief, haven’t u just ignored their survival needs and sent them to die of hunger than #COVID19?!
U assert that government should use donation for food relief to spend on production but not consumption of food alone which is also very outrageous. We have been singing about manufacturing, production and industrialisation to be priorities in this government and u have always played a deaf ear for the last 34 years in power, has your government just thought about or remembered production now after seeing #COVID19 money or are u just looking for ways of justifying your corruption scandals that will come after the crisis is long gone?!
U mentioned about using 3 billion of the food relief donation to buy vehicles for Ministry of Health to respond to #COVID19 and later pack them for other people in government to use which is also unacceptable!
Health is always presumably supposed to be one of the key sectors in the national budget supposed to be highly facilitated and prioritised that for any government that has been in power for 34 years, at least all the districts could be having more than 20 cars and atleast 5 ambulances:- but your government has always taken statehouse, political donations to bribe off and destroy opposition and funding your continuous stay in power or Life Presidency as a priority! So by misusing these resources, aren’t you just ignoring people’s survival needs?!
Fellow Ugandans, we must stand up and fight for our rights to ensure that our people get what they deserve.
We must demand that all people get the food donated to be distributed to all Ugandans without any discrimination because they all deserve relief.
We must demand that all donation money given to this dictatorship government is properly utilised to give out food to Ugandans to avoid them from dieing of hunger but not misuse it for their campaign and elections.
We must demand that government of Uganda transparently distributes all the food items given to them tour people. Because why should someone or a company donate to u a media but we never see media showing distribution of the same items!?
You must stand up to have change in Leadership such that we can have leaders that will ensure that their people have sustainable incomes, food security and do not survive on daily income earning nomatter which pandemic or epidemic hits the country.
#AllUgandansDeserveFoodRelief
#FoodDonationMoneyMustBuyFoodButNotRoadsAndSchools
#NamayengoLydiahFor_Mukono_District_Woman_MP_2021
Do you have a story in your community or an opinion to share with us: Email us at editorial@watchdoguganda.com
