By Keefa Nuwahereza
Renowned city tycoon David Katumwa Steele, who is aspiring for the Nansana Municipality Member of Parliament (MP) seat, over the weekend donated relief food to people in Nansana municipality, as one of the ways to help them cope up with the challenges posed by the Coronavirus (COVID-19) lockdown.
Our sources in Nansana reveal that the beneficiaries of Katumwa’s generosity were mainly teachers and pastors, since they fall in some of the hard-hit categories by COVID-19. The beneficiaries who were over 1000 also included elderly people and youth in the area.
The packages that Katumwa distributed to the people of Nansana and Nabweru Divisions include Matooke, rice, meat, Blue-Band, chicken, sugar, among other niceties, which were delivered door to door.
However, we have e established that since he had to carry out the distribution exercise while observing the Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) so as to avoid crowds since they are fertile grounds for the spread of COVID-19, Katumwa carried out the distribution exercise quietly, whereby he never announced it, but surprised residents by knocking at their doors and dropping relief food items at their homes.
“These are the leaders we want, who care about us the voters and are willing to give back to the poor. But most politicians when elected tend to forget all about their voters and only remember them when it is time for voting again,” one Mzee John Musoke, one of the beneficiaries said.
Revealing why he had decided to undertake such a generous gesture, Katumwa said that; “I realized that these are very vulnerable groups. For instance, the teachers were used to living off a pay cheque at the end of every month but they are now out of jobs because of the COVID-19 pandemic, which forced government to close schools. That is why we had to come to their rescue,” Katumwa said.
He added that; “When it comes to pastors, their churches were closed yet they used to survive on the tithe being offered by the believers. Since they were serving God only, these clergymen have no means of earning because there is no more offertory or tithe from their congregations, reason why they need all the help they can get. Besides, many of their believers were teachers and other people who have since been rendered jobless by the COVID-19 Pandemic, reason why we decided to come to their rescue.”
Katumwa thus appealed to others potential donors and well-wishers to come together and pool resources such that they can donate social amenities to teachers, pastors, reverends, sheikhs and other religious leaders who have since been affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, so as to help them overcome the challenges posed by pandemic.