Makongeni MCA Peter Imwatok has reportedly changed tune and is fighting the same businesspeople who helped supply Covid-19 relief food to his constituents.
Last week, Imwatok accused the businessmen of being paid by the County at the expense of the SMEs.
However, the businessmen told Hot News that they supplied relief food to the County which then distributed to the less fortunate and the vulnerable across Nairobi County.
The Businessmen are wondering why the MCA is fighting them, yet they came to his rescue and supplied food items to the County which donated the food to his constituents.
The items which included, flour, sugar, blankets, and other household items were supplied under the Covid-19 response.
On 22md April 2021, Deputy Governor Anee Kananu unveiled the Covid-19 Feeding Program.
The program is set to benefit Nairobi residents in all the 17 Sub Counties for the next three months.
“Due to the high number of positive cases, we have in Nairobi, our County has been placed under lockdown. The outbreak of this disease has also resulted in the locking down of four (4) other counties, exposing vulnerable families to serious food insecurity challenges. The combinations of all the above factors have contributed to a lot of hardship to the vulnerable population of our County.” she said.
Kananu said the pandemic despite being a health issue, has become a major economic issue due to massive job losses, loss of income, lack of employment opportunities and increasing poverty levels.
She said the pandemic has led to lack of to low-income urban households with Nairobi County being the most affected.
“It is now emerging that the impact of Covid-19 on Mwanachi will be long term thus requiring an urgent strategic approach to manage. The sectors that have been mainly affected are labor force, transport, and housing, health, trade, and tourism and entertainment.” She said.
She added that Nairobi County Government has identified over 127,500 vulnerable households in need of support.
Beneficiaries include vulnerable families, Women, People Living with Disability, those living with HIV, and other chronic diseases drawn from 25,500 households most desperately in need of food assistance for the next three months from April to June 2021
The county is set to distribute, Maize and wheat flour, sugar, rice, blankets, basins, bread, powdered milk, and sanitary towels.
The items will be distributed to identified beneficiaries on a weekly basis over the next three months across all the seventeen sub-counties.
The program also seeks to vaccinate women over the age of 58 years.
The program has already covered Laini Saba, Roysambu Wards and Imwatiok’s Makongeni ward.