Legislators from western Uganda are calling on the government to organize free transport for persons willing to temporarily relocate from the cities to their home villages since they are no longer working.
According to the MPs, many urban poor are now struggling to feed themselves or even afford other essential items due to the Covid-19 lockdown. Last month on June 18, President Yoweri Museveni announced a 42-day lockdown in which all non-essential and emergency travel was banned in the country in a bid to contain the spread of coronavirus (Covid-19).
Mitooma Woman MP Juliet Bashiisha Agasha says she's receiving so many calls daily from people in different towns asking her to transport them to their villages yet she also has no way out.
"I am requesting that government provides free transport for those who are able to go to their villages. There is a lot of food in the villages. Matooke is ripening there but people have no means," Bashiisha said.
"If they can do it the way they did with the students and provide police buses to transport people willing to go to their villages, let them help...Others are abusing us for failure to send them money. But if they provide transport, they will not ask for money to buy food and other essentials," Bashiisha added.
According to the legislators including Patience Nkunda (Kanungu Woman MP), Basil Bataringaya (Kashari North), Margaret Ayebare Rwebyambu (Mbarara Woman MP), Elisa Rutahigwa (Rukungiri Municipality), and Amos Kankunda (Rwampara), some people underestimated the toll the 42-day lockdown would have on them, wrongly thinking they will manage to get through.
The MPs argue that even the Shs 100,000 that government plans to give to the vulnerable persons will not be able to take them through the lockdown period because it translates to a meagre Shs 2300 per day for 42 days. They are fears that the lockdown might even be extended if the country fails to contain further spread of Covid-19.
Prime Minister Robinnah Nabbanja last week said the government was to give out Shs 100,000 relief money starting June 6 to 500,000 vulnerable persons each in 10 cities and 49 municipalities who are considered the most vulnerable. However, the process to send the funds stalled over failure to generate and verify lists for the would-be beneficiaries. By Tuesday yesterday, only 20,000 persons of the 500,000 had been verified as genuine beneficiaries.
The MPs also said government should expand the list of relief cash to include vulnerable people in rural areas and border districts.
"The process [of money distribution] can be extended to add on more beneficiaries. Some border districts and town councils depend on trade with neighbouring countries like Tanzania, Congo, and Kenya. So many people don't have gardens and survive on trade. Right now, they are suffering more than in other areas. When government considers only municipalities and cities, they are not doing the right thing. Every day I receive phone calls from people asking for food because they are not trading. I think everybody should be considered because none is not working," Nkunda said.
Kankunda argues that people some people especially those doing business and residing in small towns also rent and are therefore vulnerable just like those in cities and municipalities.
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