Minister Nabakooba launches the distribution of Nets in Mityana District.
Minister Nabakooba launches the distribution of Nets in Mityana District.
By Mayengo Godfrey Communication Officer Mityana DLG
Minister of Lands, Housing and Urban Development who is also the Mityana district woman member of Parliament Hon Judith Nabakooba Nalule has launched the distribution of 251,750 mosquito nets to households, with leaders urging residents to use them properly to curb malaria in the families.
The function took place at Kitongo Health Centre III in Butayunja sub county Busujju County Mityana district.
In her speech the Mityana District Woman MP Judith Nabakooba said that in this new term she will make sure that she lobbies things for Mityana district for the good development. She went further to say that when she has come in power, she fisted lobbed for hoes later she brought fertilizers for tea growers and fertilizers for PDM farmers and brought coffee seedlings for farmers.
She also said that she is going to see that all the constituencies of Mityana get ambulances because they were given only one ambulance which she said was not fair. Woman MP Judith Nabakooba seeks three ambulances to improve emergency healthcare services. She has asked the Ministry of Health to provide three ambulances to improve emergency medical services in Busujju County, Mityana County and Mityana Municipality.
Ms Nabakooba said she had written to Health Minister Dr Chris Baryomunsi requesting the ambulances, noting that the district currently has only one, which is insufficient to meet the emergency medical needs of its population.
Ms Nabakooba pledged to continue lobbying the central government to ensure services reach poor communities and intended beneficiaries. She also applauded the President for ensuring that mosquito nets are distributed to communities as part of efforts to fight malaria.
The district received 5,035 bales of mosquito nets, each containing 50 nets, translating into 251,750 nets. With a population of about 450,000, distribution will follow a ratio of one net for every two people.
Ms Nabakooba urged village chairpersons and village health teams to ensure every household receives the nets, noting that malaria cases remain common in the district.
Dr Ian Baguma, a monitoring and evaluation programme officer at the Ministry of Health, said ministry officials had spent a week training village health team to use smartphones to support the distribution exercise.
He said beneficiaries had been registered to ensure an organised and accountable process. The campaign was ongoing across the 39 districts in the Central Region.
“We have been distributing the mosquito nets in waves. We have distributed them in all the other regions, and this is the second-last wave. We shall end with Kampala and Wakiso districts,” Dr Baguma said.
He said the current exercise was the fourth phase of the government’s mosquito net distribution programme, which began in 2014, with subsequent campaigns conducted in three-year cycles.
Mityana District Health Officer Dr Vincent Kawooya urged beneficiaries to sleep under the nets and warned against diverting them to other uses.
“Our village chairpersons will monitor you in your homes, and once we find them being used for other purposes, you will be held accountable,” he said.
Mityana District chairperson Joseph Luzige commended Ms Nabakooba for prioritising the needs of residents.
He described her as his “marabou stork”, a long-legged bird known for seeing from a distance, suggesting that she could identify the district’s needs.
Mr Luzige said the three National Resistance Movement MPs elected in Mityana would help improve service delivery during the current term.
“The minister sits in Cabinet every Monday with the President, and while there, she represents the people of Mityana and their needs to the President. We have high hopes that everything that was not worked on in the previous term will be fixed,” he said.
RDC Mukiibi Drake thanked the minister for all she had lobbyed for mityana district sighting on what the minister has lobbeyed for the district in the few months she has been in perliament he said that the minister lobbed for the hoea and they were given out to the farmers he added that the minister also lobbed for the fertilizers for tea growers and they were given out to the farmers and later brought the coffee seedlings to farmers and now distributing nets which he said that she had done her role as the women member of parliament.