Mityana Municipality Member of Parliament Francis Zaake is in a lot of trouble and faces possible charges of attempted murder after police arrested him for Disobedience of lawful orders and Negligent acts likely to spread the infection of the corona virus.
Zaake was found distributing at least 2kgs of rice, and sugar to selected households in Buswabulongo and Kiwawu villages in Mityana Municipality; outside the guidelines and new protocols by the National Task Force, a national fundraising and food distribution task team, that is overseeing all forms of support to vulnerable families facing hunger or struggling to afford food within Uganda, during this period of the pandemic.
In his first speech to the nation following the CoronaVirus outbreak, President Yoweri Museveni directed the police to arrest any politician or anyotger person found distributing food to people. He said these were seeking cheap popularity and if caught, would be charged with attempted murder, or even murder if someone they had come into contact with, died of CoronaVirus.
He instead advised all Ugandans with any food aid, to take it to the National Task Force in charge of distributing food at the office of the Prime Minister or in their respective districts. Opposition political party leaders including Hon. Kyagulanyi Robert of People Power and his FDC and People's Government counterparts, all delivered their relief items to the NTF. In several districts, other members did the same.
However, Zaake seemed not to have seen any sense in the President's directives and went ahead to flaut them on Sunday.
On Sunday evening, Hon. Mary Karoro Okrut who is heading the NTF, told the President during the live national address on COVID19, that they came up with additional protocols to facilitate the donation of quality food items, fit for human consumption, by having it certified by the UNBS and also ensure it is distributed in an orderly manner by the food distribution teams, which are screened to further reduce the risk of spreading the virus to vulnerable families benefiting from the food donations. The new protocols arose following a case of donated food that was found to be unfit for human consumption.
This would mean that Zaake's food was not certified and may not be fit for human consumption.
Fred Enanga the police spokesperson says anyone who would wish to donate food items must observe the guidelines and safe protocols in place to avoid endangering the safety of all beneficiaries.
The president said if people or companies failed to donate good food, he will stop the donations and ask that they donate cash instead. This, however could be very hard as many Ugandans fear there money could be easily swindled by corrupt government officials.
