Africa-Press – Uganda. On September 10, 2016, a 5.7 magnitude earthquake hit the country.While most of the country was not affected, Kyotera District was not as lucky. The earthquake left a trail of devastation in the area that residents are still grappling with to this day.
Ms Jackeline Mirembe was 14 at the time. Her family’s house in Minziri Village, Kyebe Sub-county collapsed when the earthquake hit and since then they have been sleeping in the cold.Her mother, Ms Josephine Nakaggwa, says with help from the residents, she managed to put up a one-roomed mud and wattle house with a tarpaulin serving as roof, where her family sleeps.
“My daughters were attending school by the time the earthquake hit our area. But since we lost everything including my crops where I was getting money to pay fees, my children had to drop out of school,” the single mother said during an interview on June 30.Mirembe’s family is not the only one that was affected. Authorities say the earthquake destroyed more than 500 houses in the sub-counties of Kakuuto and Kyebe and another 3,186 houses developed cracks.
Days after the earthquake, President Museveni visited the affected villages and pledged to assist the victims.Mr Museveni said each household would receive at least 30 pieces of iron sheets, cement, and iron bars.Even though the President did not set a time frame of when the items would be delivered, the victims say the pledge is long overdue.
“We went through another election cycle and we are not seeing any assistance coming our way, we ask the President to look into our issue and deliver on his promise,”Mr Joseph Kagezi, one of the affected residents, said.Mr Kagezi said he has struggled to find a proper home for his family of nine and hopes that government will come to their rescue.“If the government had provided at least iron sheets for every household, we could build houses using mud and sleep. But I ended up building a two roomed house which cannot accommodate the entire family,” he said.
Ms Agnes Namusiitwa, the Kyotera District vice chairperson, who is also the Kakuuto Sub-county woman councillor, said more than 380 households were affected in her area.She said the Office of the Prime Minister sent some relief items including jerrycans, 200 blankets, 10,000kgs of maize flour, beans (5,000kgs), and tarpaulins (1,000) when the earthquake hit but some residents rejected them saying they need building materials and not food.
“After waiting for the government’s relief in vain, many victims have decided to construct temporary houses as they wait for government to fulfil the pledge,” she said. Mr Jude Ssali, the Kakuuto Sub-county chairperson, says some of the residents in the area, who lost their houses to the earthquake, often suffer from malaria as a result of sleeping in the open where mosquitoes bite them. “It is really a terrible situation, they need urgent assistance,” he said Mr Geoffrey Lutaaya, the Kakuuto County MP, said he is aware of the residents’ plight and promised to continue lobbying the government to extend assistance to the victims.
“My predecessor, Mr Christopher Kalemba, tried to amplify the victims’ voices on the floor of Parliament several times, but he was not helped. I am going to continue pushing for the same and also use other avenues to ensure that our people get assistance,” he said.In neighbouring Rakai, Mr Edward Kamya, the acting deputy chief administrative officer, said they are facing a similar challenge.
He said technical assessment reports showing the extent of the damage caused by the earthquake were submitted to the Office of the Prime Minister. “When you move around the district, you can really see how households and institutions got affected. We identified 300 households and these people are still waiting for assistance,” he said.
Mr Kamya added that some people, who managed to reconstruct their houses, are still choking on loans they got to rebuild them.“I have on many occasions pleaded with some money lenders and financial institutions to give people more time other than arresting them,” he said.
Govt officials say they are waiting for Parliament
Mr Martin Owori, the commissioner disaster preparedness in the Office of the Prime Minister, said they submitted a Cabinet paper to Parliament with all details for approval of a budget to help the landslide victims in 2016, but this has not been considered to date.“When the President pledges something, it is the respective departments or ministries to fulfil his pledge. On the issue of earthquake victims in Rakai and Kyotera, we assessed and came up with a budget for the victims, but Parliament has delayed to approve it. So, don’t blame the President,” he said.
