Mothers in Kotido districts have been warned against starving their children so as to benefit from food and cash relief from the well-wishers.
Development partners like the World Food Programme-WFP recently started giving 50 kilograms of food, 3 liters of cooking oil, and cash vouchers of 50,000 Shillings to parents of each malnourished child in the household.
During the monitoring visit by the Kotido district leaders, they found out that some parents are intentionally starving their children so that they remain malnourished and continue benefiting from food and cash.
Brian Tuko, the Community Development Officer for Kotido District says that some parents have intentionally resorted to starving their children to remain malnourished so that they continue getting food aid.
‘’We have learned that parents are making a solution of soap detergent because it is believed that it quickly deteriorates the condition of the children and makes them malnourished in less than a week.
Gabriel Etesot the Kotido Deputy Resident District Commissioner, said it is very awkward for parents to starve their children for their own selfish gains.
Etesot directed the community development officer to urgently provide the list of all the suspected parents who have been starving their children so that they face the wrath of the law.
He said once the list is availed, the District Police Commander should effect the arrest of all the parents violating the rights of their children.
“This is an unacceptable and gross abuse of Children’s rights. How can you starve your child just because you want food and cash”? Etesot questioned.
The acute Food Insecurity integrated phase clarification (IPC) report for Uganda recently reported that 91,600 children in Karamoja are acutely malnourished representing over 20% of the children which is the highest in Uganda. URN
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