Following disastrous floods that flashed through the KwaZulu Natal province in SouthAfrica, more than 10,000 troops have been deployed to help in the ongoing rescue and relief operations.
The South African government has since declared the floods a nationwide disaster after the river and mudslides killed 440 people as a search for 63 more is still ongoing.
Pleased about the government's response, The Fatboy Show hosts Daniel Omara and Olive Najjuma wondered why the Ugandan army is occasionally deployed when similar disasters hit the country.
Olive said that the KwaZulu -Natal flash floods reminded her of the devastating floods that swept across Kasese district in 2020 in which a hospital was submerged. She wondered to herself what the army did to help during the disaster.
“Oh no, our troops are everywhere but Uganda! They are in Congo, South Sudan, Rwanda. When we need them, they are busy. We need to style up and bring our troops back home. I don't know if our military would volunteer for things like floods, though ironically, they went to kill locusts,” Daniel said.
But Olive argued that the military isn't just supposed to volunteer but to intervene in any case of national emergency.
“This is like a state of emergency. I appreciate that in the neighborhood we are saving people’s lives but home is home. When tragedy strikes at home, you show up. Even during the Easter celebrations, heavy rains swept away culverts in the Karamoja region and some roads are currently impassable.” Olive added
“So aren't these the moments when we need our troops to do the work, especially when the President gave a green light to them to construct anything related to the work of the government?” She asked.
Several roads and bridges were cut off in Karamoja following the heavy rain pours on Friday and Saturday leaving transport at a standstill. Karita bridge culverts collapsed, cutting off the roads that connect Mbale and Amudat. The Abim-Napak road is now in a sorry state following the rains whereas the flooding at Lolachat bridge left movement to Moroto from Nabilatuk road impossible.
The Fatboy show is hosted by James Onen aka Fatboy, Olive and Sarah every weekday from 6am to 10am on RX Radio.