Pader Residents Protest Missing Names in Mosquito Nets Distribution

The Distribution of Long-lasting Insecticide-treated mosquito nets in Pajule Sub-county in Pader District by Health Ministry officials was put to a halt following protests by locals over missing names of beneficiaries.

This came as close to 5,000 names of people in 13 villages in Paiula parish, one of the six parishes in Pajule Sub-county registered went missing among the beneficiaries of the government long-lasting mosquito nets. 

Pajule Sub-county received 13,690 mosquito nets from the Health Ministry last week to boost the fight against malaria.

Pajule Sub-county LCIII Chairperson Brilliant Tito Okello says that the anomaly angered the locals since they had already been registered to benefit from the mosquito nets.

He says although they had called for restrain, the locals protested the move in solidarity and rejected the mosquito net distribution until the affected people in the 13 villages are considered in the mosquito net distribution.

“As local leaders in Pajule sub-county, we are not pleased with the irregularity in which names of people who should have benefited from the mosquito nets have disappeared, this frustrates the fight against,” says Okello.

Okello has called on the respective leaders in the district and the health Ministry to reconsider adding his locals to the lists of those benefiting from the on-going mosquito net distribution.   

Patrick Moro, a resident of Paiula parish says his family of five were earlier registered by the area LCI Chairperson but got surprised to learn that his parish wasn't among those to benefit from the mosquito net distribution.

"We are demanding answers from the respective leaders on why this parish hasn't been included among beneficiaries of the mosquito nets. Could this be a deliberate move,?" Moro said.

Peace Atuhaire, the National Coordinator for Mosquito Net Distribution in Pader District acknowledges that there was a glitch in capturing data of beneficiaries in Paiula parish. She, however, notes that they resolved the matter adding that all the beneficiaries were registered over the weekend.

“There was indeed a system error, I don't know whether it came from the district of the Health Ministry but it was resolved and entered in the system this, however, didn’t affect our distribution because we resolved it before the distribution time,” She said. 

Atuhaire says although the distribution kicked off on Monday, the beneficiaries in Pajule will now not receive the earlier budgeted quantity of five nets per household to enable others not captured earlier to receive.

Loy Akullo, one of the officials coordinating the net distribution in Pajule Sub-county says data captured at the Ministry of Health only had five parishes yet the sub-county had six parishes.

She says the names could have disappeared at the time of micro-planning and were never submitted for final capturing at the Health Ministry.

Pader District has received a total of 129,120 pieces of long-lasting mosquito nets from the Ministry of Health to aid in the fight against Malaria.

The government intends to distribute 27.5 Million Long Lasting Insecticide Treated Nets (LLINs) throughout the country under the campaign dubbed ‘Under the Net'.