Following national data that cited Kamwenge district with the second-highest number of malnutrition cases in Uganda, Hanny Turyahebwa, the Chief Administrative Officer of Kamwenge district, has vowed to work alongside other leaders to end malnutrition in their area.
“Turyahebwa made these comments while addressing guests at the World Nutrition Day commemoration, which takes place annually on May 28th to emphasize the significance of proper nutrition. This year’s event aims to raise awareness about the issue of malnutrition in Kamwenge district, where malnutrition rates are higher than the national and regional averages.”
“We agreed that we shall take practical steps to enhance our strategies, programs, plans, and budgets to integrate nutrition actions. And I think even in the current budget and the one that is ending, we have already taken steps to address those concerns. We shall take the lead in enhancing the effective implementation of nutrition interventions within the existing work plans,” remarked Turyahebwa.
Alex Bambona, Assistant Commissioner, Food and Nutrition Health at the Ministry of Agriculture, Animal Industry and Fisheries said cases of malnutrition impend Uganda’s development agenda, as there is no way any nation can attain middle-income status if there are still cases of malnutrition that are being faced by its citizens.
“Food security and nutrition are synonymous with development. If a country has a poor index of food security and nutrition, it is declared underdeveloped, so there is no way we can pride ourselves that we are middle income when there are stories of malnutrition. And in our culture, if a man can’t feed his whole family successfully, then he is nothing. He is declared nothing, he is a nobody. So, there is no way you can raise your head in the nation that you are powerful when we cannot feed ourselves,” said Bambona.
Milton Muwuma (Kigulu South), who is also the Chairperson of Uganda Parliamentary Alliance of Food and Nutrition revealed that during the Alliance’s outreaches in communities, residents pleaded with Parliament to expedite the enactment of the Alcoholic Drinks Control Bill to address challenges of alcoholism in Kamwenge.
He said, “Domestic violence in homes occasioned by alcoholism. This is something some of the stakeholders have urged Parliamentarians to fast-track the law regulating alcohol uptake. We aren’t banning alcohol, but you know this is a tricky thing for us as politicians, you will be endangered, you never know, standing here, it raises hostility, but we want to regulate it people to begin taking maybe in the afternoons, but also have limits in the evening hours.”
Dr.William Mucunguzi, District Health Officer of Kamwenge acknowledged the challenges of malnutrition in the district, and the negative effects of stunting as these are irreversible, saying it is that plight that prompted the district to conduct mass screening of all children below 5 years of age and after the screening, and analyzing the date obtained, the information was shared at national level which could explain why Kamwenge has more malnourished children than other districts in Uganda.
Mucunguzi explained, “However, when we look at stunting levels, we are standing at 41.6% and the region as Rwenzori region, we stand at 38.2%, and nationally, the stunting levels stand at 26% and that shows that we are higher than the region and the nation and that shows, there is a problem. We also noted that there is low knowledge of a balanced diet. We also noted that most men aren’t participating in food production, we have left women to do the food production yet, men are doing other things.”
Moses Kadobera, Associate Programs Director at World Vision noted that it is shameful for Uganda to be blessed and endowed with so many resources, but still have children that go without food and also record cases of malnourished amidst the abundance, and called on Parliament to expedite the enactment of laws geared towards ending malnutrition in Uganda.
“We have legal frameworks that need to be reviewed, our Food and Nutrition Bill hasn’t been passed and this needs to be fast-tracked, we don’t have a school feeding policy, neither do we have a disaster risk reduction policy in the country. It is evident from the Sustainable Development Goal Report 2021 that the food-poor people population of that category has increased from 37% to 39% between 2016 and 2020 this is something we should brush aside. Food storage systems have broken down, right from home. You can attest that we no longer have granaries neither do we have robust food reservoirs across the different districts,” said Kadobera.
World Vision also urged the Government to regulate the aggressive marketing messages that are seeking to replace breastfeeding with formula, saying the current practice could explain the increasing cases of obesity among children.
“We are asking the Government to regulate marketing practices across the country, today, we have marketing practices of messages that have completely whitewashed the best practice of exclusive breastfeeding for mothers. We have so many products that are on the market now, that are encouraging mothers to stop mothers from exclusively breastfeeding children and take on, breastfeeding substitutes. These substitutes have very grave effects including obesity,” added Kadobera.
On the other hand, Joseph Karungi, District Chairperson of Kamwenge decried the destruction and loss of food occasioned by wildlife, saying this too has contributed to malnutrition amongst communities noting, “These communities living near forests, they plant their food and that food is destroyed by animals especially elephants, it is affecting badly our communities. I know you passed a law of compensation of communities, but I think it isn’t being implemented as fast as it should.”
