Mothers in Kotido feeding children soap to keep them malnourished for aid

The World Food Programme (WFP) recently started disbursing food support in the form of 50 kilograms of food, three litres of cooking oil and cash of Shs50,000 to families of each malnourished child in the district.

However, when the district leaders conducted a monitoring visit, they discovered that some parents have been purposely starving their children to keep them malnourished so that they continue receiving relief from well-wishers.

The Community Development Officer for Kotido district, Brian Tuko, says that the culprits have been preparing a detergent solution that is said to speed up the malnourishment of the children within days.

‘’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," Tuko reveals.

The Kotido Deputy Resident District Commissioner, Gabriel Etesot, says that it is embarrassing for parents to subject their children to such conditions for selfish gains. He ordered Tuko to quickly collect the names of the suspects so as to bring them to justice for participating in the malnourishment of the children.

The list of suspects will be handed to the District Police Commander, who will arrest the suspected parents, an enraged Etesot added that the act was inhumane.

“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 queried.

According to a report from the the acute food insecurity Integrated Phase Clarification (IPC) for Uganda, 91,600 children (about 20 percent of the children) in Karamoja sub-region are severely malnourished.