Four arrested over child trafficking

Early this month, KCCA rescued 259 children who were sent to Koblin Skilling Centre in Napak District for rehabilitation.
Days later, however, the hotspots, including Jinja Road traffic lights and Wandegeya witnessed an influx of child beggars.

The police are holding four people in connection with child trafficking. The suspects are accused of forcing the trafficked children to beg on the streets of Kampala City.

By press time, the suspects, who spent Thursday night at Central Police Station, were awaiting arraignment in court.

In the same operation, 218 street children were taken off the streets and sent to a shelter in Masulita, Wakiso District.

Ms Dorothy Kisaka, the executive director of Kampala Capital City Authority (KCCA), said that the suspects have been on their radar.

After passing the Kampala Capital City Child Protection Ordinance, 2022, Ms Kisaka said more effort is now focused on nabbing traffickers responsible for the proliferation of street children in the capital.

“Using children to beg and giving out handouts on streets is outlawed. It abets the criminals. Our investigations on the ground have established that the street kids is an organised crime with adult beneficiaries,” she revealed.

She added: “We are working towards breaking up this whole trade and its supporters in the city… My message to Kampala residents is that the law prevents you from giving handouts to child beggars. This is not bona fide begging.”

Early this month, the Authority, in a similar operation, rescued 259 children who were sent to Koblin Skilling Centre in Napak District for rehabilitation. Days later, however, the hotspots, including Jinja Road traffic lights and Wandegeya witnessed an influx of child beggars.

Ms Kisaka revealed that such rescue operations are hamstrung by limited shelters.

“These operations will continue but the limitation is we do not have where to take these children,” she said.

The authority, with support from First Lady Janet Museveni and Uganda Women’s Effort To Save Orphans (Uweso), are working on opening up more homes to expand the numbers rescued and rehabilitated.

An investigation by the Parliament Committee on Gender, Labour and Social Development on the plight of Karimojong children enslaved by street begging and child labour, quoting the Ministry of Internal Affairs, shows that from April to August 2021, 65 trafficked children were intercepted in Kisenyi, Kampala alone, while 35 were intercepted in Nairobi, Kenya.

The report further states that majority of the children are trafficked from Karamoja and end up engaging in begging, prostitution, and other forms of child labour.