{"id":65742,"date":"2024-01-27T17:56:02","date_gmt":"2024-01-27T17:56:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/?p=65742"},"modified":"2024-01-27T16:45:58","modified_gmt":"2024-01-27T16:45:58","slug":"henry-okello-oryem-uganda-minister-says-people-dying-of-hunger-are-idiots","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/henry-okello-oryem-uganda-minister-says-people-dying-of-hunger-are-idiots","title":{"rendered":"Henry Okello Oryem: Uganda minister says people dying of hunger are \u2018idiots\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Uganda. <\/strong><\/span>Ugandan’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, Henry Okello has been criticised after calling those who have died of hunger in his country \u201cidiots\u201d.<\/b><\/p>\n

An official report by a human rights body said in 2022 more than 2,200 people died of starvation and related illnesses in north-east Uganda.<\/p>\n

Many people have deemed Henry Okello Oryem’s comments tone-deaf.<\/p>\n

But Mr Oryem in an interview Uganda television channel argued that given Uganda’s favourable climate and fertile land, people should be able to grow food for themselves.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt’s only an idiot, a real idiot, that can die of hunger in Uganda,\u201d the state minister said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you work hard, there is land in Uganda. The climate is right in spite [of] climate change. If you make a double effort to make sure that you go out in the morning, you till your land, you plant the seeds, you maintain your plantation, surely, how do you fail then to get food?\u201d<\/p>\n

As well as killing many people, the food shortage in the north-east left nearly half-a-million people in \u201cacute hunger\u201d, said the report by the Uganda Human Rights Commission, which was established by the constitution.<\/p>\n

The minister’s comments have sparked outrage.<\/p>\n

Moses Aleper, a legislator for Chekwii county, which is part of the affected Karamoja region, told the BBC that Mr Oryem’s views were \u201cnot right\u201d and \u201cunfortunate coming from a minister who knows what goes on in this country\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cI’m from one of the most productive parts of Karamoja where there is adequate rain and we produce food. But in situations where weather fails us, the weather vagaries set in, we definitely fail to get food. And normally people definitely get famine and eventually hunger strikes.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mr Aleper also said that hunger in the region is often caused by \u201cother issues beyond even human control\u201d, such as the way that the climate is changing.<\/p>\n

Prominent Ugandan author and journalist Charles Onyango-Obbo also hit out at Mr Oryem, saying that the minister failed to grasp \u201cthat hunger in a country like Uganda is a distribution\/market problem\u201d.<\/p>\n

Official data on the current food situation in Karamoja is unavailable, but it often experiences hunger during dry seasons due to the region’s semi-arid climatic conditions.<\/p>\n

For More News And Analysis About Uganda<\/a> Follow Africa-Press<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Uganda. Ugandan’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, Henry Okello has been criticised after calling those who have died of hunger in his country \u201cidiots\u201d. An official report by a human rights body said in 2022 more than 2,200 people died of starvation and related illnesses in north-east Uganda. Many people have deemed Henry Okello […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":65741,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,7,12],"tags":[233,240,234],"class_list":["post-65742","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-head-lines","category-policy","tag-africa-press","tag-africa-press-uganda","tag-uganda"],"yoast_head":"\nHenry Okello Oryem: Uganda minister says people dying of hunger are \u2018idiots\u2019 - Uganda<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Ugandan's Minister of Foreign Affairs, Henry Okello has been criticised after calling those who have died of hunger i ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/henry-okello-oryem-uganda-minister-says-people-dying-of-hunger-are-idiots\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Henry Okello Oryem: Uganda minister says people dying of hunger are \u2018idiots\u2019\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Ugandan's Minister of Foreign Affairs, Henry Okello has been criticised after calling those who have died of hunger i ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/henry-okello-oryem-uganda-minister-says-people-dying-of-hunger-are-idiots\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Uganda\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2024-01-27T17:56:02+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/uganda\/sites\/34\/2024\/01\/sm_1706361178.81117.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"850\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"521\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/henry-okello-oryem-uganda-minister-says-people-dying-of-hunger-are-idiots#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/henry-okello-oryem-uganda-minister-says-people-dying-of-hunger-are-idiots\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"Henry Okello Oryem: Uganda minister says people dying of hunger are \u2018idiots\u2019\",\"datePublished\":\"2024-01-27T17:56:02+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/henry-okello-oryem-uganda-minister-says-people-dying-of-hunger-are-idiots\"},\"wordCount\":397,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/henry-okello-oryem-uganda-minister-says-people-dying-of-hunger-are-idiots#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/uganda\/sites\/34\/2024\/01\/sm_1706361178.81117.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Africa Press\",\"Africa Press-Uganda\",\"uganda\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"head lines\",\"policy\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/henry-okello-oryem-uganda-minister-says-people-dying-of-hunger-are-idiots#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/henry-okello-oryem-uganda-minister-says-people-dying-of-hunger-are-idiots\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/henry-okello-oryem-uganda-minister-says-people-dying-of-hunger-are-idiots\",\"name\":\"Henry Okello Oryem: Uganda minister says people dying of hunger are \u2018idiots\u2019 - 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