Kampala City mayors have advised the government to involve local leaders in the identification of vulnerable people to avoid cases of forgery, which might alienate many Ugandans from receiving Covid-19 cash.
Mayors argue that local leaders know all the groups of people living in their constituencies hence it would be easy for them to identify the vulnerable category.
The Kawempe Division mayor, Emmanuel Sserunjogi, said the government’s plan to use town clerks might not be effective because the latter’s interaction with vulnerable groups in communities is minimal.
Government recently announced that it would distribute Shs54b among vulnerable people with each targeted household getting Shs100, 000.
Although the Minister of Gender, Ms Betty Amongi, last week said Cabinet had used data from Uganda Bureau of Standards (UBOS) to identify vulnerable people, officials from UBOS disowned the list, saying they can only get the list using primary data collection with the help of local council chairpersons.
Sserunjogi said with 60 per cent of people living in slums, the number of vulnerable people could be higher than what the government reported.
The Makindye Division mayor, Ali Mulyanyama Nganda, warned the government against rushing to identify the vulnerable without carrying out a ground assessment.
He urged the government to expedite the process of giving out money.
