David Mafabi
30 September 2007
Mbale — AN acute food shortage has hit Karamoja following the torrential rains and floods that have destroyed all the road networks that link the region to the rest of the world.
The rains have washed away roads and bridges in Soroti, Katakwi, and Sironko regions leaving Karamoja totally cut off from food supplies.
Local leaders in Karamoja told Sunday Monitor since the situation has left people in the drought prone Karamoja helpless. The leaders said the only access route to Karamoja is through Mbale via Kapchorwa which road can only be used by light vehicles that can't carry adequate food supplies.
The Karamoja Agro-Pastoral Development Programme [KADP] Manager, Michael Kuskus said prices for food stuffs have sharply shot up making life very difficult for people in the region.
Mr Kuskus said a kilogramme of sugar has doubled from Shs2, 000 to Shs4000, while a sacket of salt is now sold at Shs700 up from Shs150. He said the price of baking flour has also doubled from 2,000 to Shs4000. A kilogramme of maize flour goes for Shs2, 000 up from Shs1, 500, while the price of millet flour has shot from Shs500 to Shs700.
"We are in real food crisis, everything is scarce and what is available is too expensive for people to afford there are no new supplies making traders to hoard food stuffs and later sell them expensively," Mr Kuskus said.
Moroto District Chairman Ken Lochap told Sunday Monitor, that whereas Karamoja is the origin of the Teso floods, the government was only concerned about Teso. "We [people in Karamoja] have always been affected by floods but [the] government has left us to God, so our people are just praying," said Mr Lochap.
He criticized the State Minister Disaster Preparedness Musa Ecweru for only camping in his constituency as if it's the only area that has been flooded. "Minister Musa Ecweru has become a constituency minister, and forgotten all the other areas that have suffered floods. We are so bitter," he said.
The Presidential Assistant on Disarmament in Karamoja Michael Lokawua said many primary schools have failed to open in Karamoja region for the new term because accessibility by roads, village paths has been either blocked or completely destroyed by floods.
The Karamoja region comprises Nakapiripiriti, Moroto, Kotido, Kabong and Abim districts.
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