BY IRENE LAMUNU
On 18th February, the Ordinary Bishop of Moroto, Bp. Giulio Guzetti Damiano visited Karimojong children in Masulita Children’s Village in Wakiso district. On that day, he celebrated Holy Mass with the children. The Gospel was taken from Mark 1:12-15, which talks about the spirit driving Jesus out into the desert. During his homily, Bp. Damiano asked the children to follow Jesus Christ who was in the desert to defeat the devil. He also requested the children to learn how to pray and fast to defeat the devil.
The children in Masulita are part of the Karamojong street children living in Kampala, begging to earn a living; with their little voices asking, “Uncle Mpako kikumi”, requesting for one hundred shillings. The children are aged 10 years and below, most of whom speak Ngakarimojong and most are brought in from Napak district. The children are all over Kampala, in the city Centre; in Nakawa, Ntinda and Kansanga among other places. At the beginning of this year, Kampala hosted two summits, the 27th Speakers Conference and the National Aligned Movement (NAM) summits that were held from January 03rd, 2024 to January 20th, 2024. As preparations for the summits were underway, many things took place including: repairs and constructions of many roads and the painting of many properties along Entebbe Road and within the city centre.
Then there was what was called a street clean out, which saw all street children taken off the streets. During the cleanup of Kampala, Kampala City Council Authority together with the Ministry of Gender Labour and Social Development bundled up several street children in an operation, which was dubbed: rescuing the children and relocating them to Masulita Children’s village in Wakiso district. Earlier in September 2023, The New Vision reported that the Commissioner of Youth and Children Affairs Ngabirano Fred revealed that there was a project run by the Ministry of Gender, Labour and Social Development to clear the children off the streets of Kampala and absorb them into vocational education for skills acquisition. The paper was further quoted reporting the commissioner’s decision that street children would be reintegrated into learning institutions, be re-untied with their families and empowered to fight incidents of the same kind and repatriated children would undergo counselling and support from the government to ensure they don’t return to the streets.
A few months after this revelation in January 2024, 1044 children were rounded off the street and taken to the Children’s village in Masulita for rehabilitation. The Acting coordinator of the children’s village, Miss Achan Coina Joan noted that the rescue happened earlier because of the two summits. Miss Achan said the Ministry of Gender, Labour and Social Development together with KCCA relocated the children to Masulita for rehabilitation and reintegration back into their families, thereafter. She however revealed that the children were expected to stay in Masulita between three to six months, which was the government’s standard time for rehabilitation. Achan added that the rehabilitation also depended on individual children, as some were more traumatized and would take longer to heal, while others adapted immediately.
Miss Achan added that most children were undergoing counselling at the Children’s Village. She said on arrival at the village, the children were wild and disgruntled and disseminated wrong information but after one month of stay, they began opening up and were more friendly and ready to give information. When KCCA and Min of Gender were rescuing the children, they also rescued 147 mothers, all taken to Masulita. Later, the mothers were separated from the children and remanded to Luzira Prison. Achan revealed that 88 mothers were charged with child trafficking and the rest were taken to Luzira Prison for adult rehabilitation. Achan explained that some of the mothers remanded for child trafficking were notable for encouraging the children to go on the streets.
While in Masulita, the children were getting child care plans including: counselling, psychosocial treatment, personal effects and spiritual support from Comboni Missionaries. The missionaries were also trying to identify any talents that the children had. Achan added that in the last week of February, 308 children of primary age were handed over to Napak district for Primary school education. Achan said these children would be educated from primary to university.
Dwelling Places Children’s Village also planned to take 25 youths from this lot. Achan said Dwelling Places was taking the youth to continue with the rehabilitation and also skilling them so that they can help the young generation in the future. She explained that some of the mothers who were taken to Luzira Prison were involved in child trafficking while they were younger.
Therefore, if the youth are helped through skilling and rehabilitation, they would be able to manage the young ones and also control the child trafficking from Karamoja. In another incident, on 21st February 2024, The Kampala City Council Authority Hall court ordered 100 mothers from the Karamoja region for rehabilitation and a month of community service, following their conviction of violating the children’s protection ordinance which makes sending children on the streets to beg illegal. When passing the sentence, the magistrate alluded to the rampancy of the offence and the need to enforce a deterrent sentence.
Also on 25th February, The Sunday Monitor’s editorial is quoted as stating that the Karamojong children flooding the streets of Kampala should be awakening the nation to the need to address what causes people from a region so rich in minerals but whose people are ironically some of the poorest in the country to descend on the streets of urban areas of the country begging.
