On February 23, Daily Monitor published a crucial story that was somehow overshadowed by election coverage. According to reports from Karamoja sub-region, families in Kaabong District are facing starvation and 11 people are so far reported to have died due to hunger in the last one month. Mr Samson Lokeris, the Dodoth East MP, said the 11 people died in Kathile, Lodike, Lolelia and Loyoro sub-counties.
This is not a new development in Karamoja where starvation is a common occurrence. As Mr Lokeris noted, the problem is attributed to prolonged drought that often dries up water sources. While the Office of the Prime Minister delivered an assortment of food in December last year, authorities say the relief was not enough.
The hunger situation in Karamoja should not be taken lightly. The extent to which desperate families go to find solutions is deeply disturbing and calls for urgent action that goes beyond routine food aid that is often not enough. Karamoja needs well-planned sustainable interventions.
Just two months ago, this newspaper reported that the famine ravaging Karamoja sub-region took another risky twist with parents resorting to giving their children alcohol to induce them to sleep and stop crying due to hunger. Using alcohol as an alternative obviously puts children’s lives at an even greater risk. Late last year, at least 27 people were reported to have died in the sub-region as a result of hunger.
During the just-concluded election campaigns, politicians made grand promises to Karamoja. President Museveni, whose wife is the minister for Karamoja, said the sub-region is going to become one of the industrial centres of Uganda and FDC presidential candidate Dr Kizza Besigye promised to establish a national food reserve bank with silos to ensure food security and stabilise the price of produce in Karamoja. Such promises, especially the establishment of a national food reserve bank, should be implemented by the government.
While some interventions are already in place, a lot remains to be done to ensure the entire sub-region gets lasting solutions to the prolonged dry spells that lead to crop failures. Last year, some families were trained by Caritas, a nongovernmental organisation founded by Catholic Church, to have ‘kitchen gardens’ where they grow vegetables on a small plot of land. This is however a short-term effort.
To address the hunger problem in Karamoja, government should work with local leaders and policy makers to find solutions unique to the sub-region. There are various options such as improved agricultural techniques, irrigation and, of course, livestock development which are crucial for sustainable agriculture in drought-prone areas like Karamoja.
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