David Kabanda
It is reported that hunger killed over 900 people in Karamoja since January 2022, and that eight out of ten households are facing starvation. This however is not unique to Karamoja. Many people are having mild to acute food insecurity in other parts of the country. From the onset, it should be noted that the law requires that everyone’s right to an adequate standard of living for himself and his family, including adequate food must be protected, respected and upheld as a constitutional right. This legal requirement is only dispensed where every man, woman and child, alone or in community with others, have physical and economic access at all times to adequate food or means for its procurement.
The central question asked by everyone is, how did we get here? and what would be the appropriate response? Well, this stems from our consistent failure to place food in its right place and treat it within the available legal frameworks. As a country, we have failed to understand food in its full dimensions as a social, economic and political phenomenon. Food governance has completely failed and the duty bearers seem to have their hands off. We are yet to have a food system as a county which can (with a level of certainty) plan, and make clear forecast and estimates. Food governance has completely failed from the individual, household, local government and central government. And we have neglected the human rights-based approach which places legal obligations to respect, protect and fulfill the right to adequate food for everyone. We need to understand that the right to food does not mean the right to be fed, it on means that systems must enable all individuals or communities to feed themselves in dignity.
It is surprisingly true that although the constitution requires the government to establish national food reserves, the same has never been established since 1995, yet Uganda has ever had food reserves. Food Security and Nutrition is a preserve of the duty bearers in any civilized nation. This is a governance issue. Duty bearers must take appropriate steps to encourage people to grow and store adequate food, establish national food reserves and encourage and promote proper nutrition through mass education and other appropriate means in order to build a healthy State.
Under the East African Community Treaty, Uganda as a partner state must establish strategic food reserves as provided in Article 110. Since 1999, Uganda is yet to implement this wonderful provision of the treaty. This is how we find our selves into this food crisis. We ought to have averted it if we followed the basics of the legal requirements.
The right to adequate food, like any other human right, imposes three types or levels of obligations on Uganda: the obligations to respect, to protect and to fulfil. In turn, the obligation to fulfil incorporates both an obligation to facilitate and an obligation to provide. The obligation to fulfil (facilitate) means the State must proactively engage in activities intended to strengthen people’s access to and utilization of resources and means to ensure their livelihood, including food security. Finally, whenever an individual or group is unable, for reasons beyond their control, to enjoy the right to adequate food by the means at their disposal, States have the obligation to fulfil (provide) that right directly. This obligation also applies to persons who are victims of natural or other disasters.
What would be the appropriate response and by who?
Although the duty bearers must take lead, every person must take action. This is because, food is both an individual and community aspect.
The food crisis responses must however be properly guided. In such situations of food crisis, panic buying must be avoided at all cost. This prevents supplying contaminated food and if possible, the food must be sourced locally. And it ought to be whole foods for example grain. The food should be as nearly as possible culturally appropriate to the intended beneficiaries. Other critical support like energy for cooking, salt and water must be considered.
Care must be exercise to avoid a repeat of food rights violations that have happened in Uganda during emergencies.
During covid -19 lockdown, we were all shocked when UNBS informed us that 38% of the food disturbed was contaminated with aflatoxins. In 2019, many people in Karamoja died due to eating donated food that was contaminated. These families have never been compensated and there not been no audit from government. It is therefore important that the relevant government ministries, departments and agencies guide the process including the individual donors of food. Whoever supplies or donates contaminated food is criminally culpable and has civil liability.
Secondly, because the citizens’ relationship with the state is purely legal, the government must issue guidelines of the food crisis support in the gazette, such that everyone knows how much food is available and how it will be distributed and by who? It should be a transparent process to avoid fraud. Government and all people must work to see that food reaches the intended beneficiaries.
Lessons from Karamoja
Beyond Karamoja, many parts of the country have suffered heatwaves, leading to serious crop failure. The interventions should to avert food insecurity in the whole country. Because of the ongoing food crisis spreading all over the country causing insurmountable levels of hunger and panic, there should now be an urgent consideration of establishment of food collection centers as an initiative controlled at local government level. On the broad scale, government should declare all L.C 1 offices as food collection centers for people who can’t afford food for the whole country because of the increasing acute food insecurity.
Government should now prioritize the use of media centers of wide coverage to issue food alerts for the whole country on a weekly basis. This is urgently needed. As a strategy to mitigate skyrocketing prices of food, we implore the OPM to declare incentives for food players including traders. OPM (as the nutrition coordinator in the country) must now make sure that all laws that regulate food are enforced to guide the public.
Government must now target actions post the crisis. The Legal framework on food and enforcement must be prioritized. This happens at production (laws governing and regulating agricultural practices to ensure safety from persistent pollutants, dangerous chemicals in food and aflatoxins contamination); post-harvest handling legal aspects of managing rodents and warehouse receipt systems-public health laws; transportation of food in food-grade apparatuses; regulation of meat processing and abattoirs and food processors; packaging and nutrition labeling laws including aspects of food fraud; prevail over illegal food marketing to children and promotion of unhealthy food and sugar sweetened beverages to children; regulating hotels and restaurants practice of unhealthy diets and lastly provision of food in public and private institutions like schools and workplaces.
We all must work towards the right of everyone to feed oneself in dignity. It is the right to have continuous access to the resources that will enable you to produce, earn or purchase enough food to not only prevent hunger, but also to ensure health and well-being.
The Author is the Executive Director of the Centre for Food and Adequate Living Rights, CEFROHT
