The Town Clerk of Kitgum Municipality, Monday Joseph Bagonza, has raised the alarm over a growing underground trade in Ready-to-Use Therapeutic Food (RUTF), the lifesaving peanut-based paste better known as Plumpy’Nut.
RUTF is a high-calorie, nutrient-dense paste designed to pull severely malnourished children back from the brink of starvation. Distributed free of charge through government health facilities and humanitarian agencies, each single-dose packet contains an exact balance of milk proteins, fats, cereals, vitamins, and minerals. With proper treatment, nine out of ten children suffering from Severe Acute Malnutrition recover.
But in Kitgum, the lifesaving paste is increasingly turning up in the wrong places: open-air markets, retail shops, and even roadside kiosks, hawked like candy bars. On this basis, Bagonza warned that anyone caught selling RUTF outside authorized health facilities will face the full force of the law.
“RUTF is a medical product, not ordinary food,” he said, citing the National Drug Policy and Authority Act, the Food and Drugs Act, and the Public Health Act. “The sale of medicines and therapeutic feeds outside licensed health facilities or pharmacies is illegal and dangerous.”
The trade is partly driven by cross-border dynamics. Refugee settlements in neighboring Lamwo District, home to many South Sudanese refugees, receive humanitarian shipments of Plumpy’Nut. Some recipients, desperate to feed entire families, sell their supplies to vendors who then ferry the packets into Kitgum’s markets for resale.
The business has also attracted unsuspecting parents like Grace Lamuno, a local maize dealer, who confessed she bought the paste for her children after they tasted it at school. “They said it gives them energy,” she said. “I didn’t know it was illegal to buy without a prescription.”
Nutrition experts warn that casual snacking is not only unlawful but potentially harmful. Bernard Bwambale, a public-health nutritionist with the Global Consumer Centre (CONSENT) Uganda, explained that RUTF is formulated for severely malnourished children under medical supervision. If healthy people consume it, he said, they may suffer metabolic complications from nutrient overload.
Bwambale added that every packet diverted to the market is a packet stolen from a health facility—potentially costing a malnourished child their life. He stressed that wherever the product is found, it should be given free of charge.
He argued that the theft and sale of RUTF by unlicensed individuals could be contributing to the deaths of malnourished children who are denied fast access to treatment.
Bagonza urged parents to obtain RUTF only from authorized health facilities and to demand a prescription. “For the safety of our children and our community, let’s end this illegal trade,” he said, adding that municipal authorities, the police, and the National Drug Authority will step up enforcement and public awareness campaigns.
Residents like George Okello agree that stronger oversight and community education are urgently needed. “People must understand this is medicine, not a snack,” he said.
