Until you end insurgence in Karamoja, street kids will always come back to Kampala – lawmakers caution KCCA

A section of Members of Parliament from the Karamoja sub-region have cautioned the government together with Kampala Capital City Authority that as long as there is instability and unfavourable living conditions in the region, street children will always find their way back on Kampala streets.

MPs who were reacting to KCCA’s operation to clear street children off Kampala streets that took place on Wednesday where over 200 were caught, said government is treating symptoms of the problem instead of treating the causes of the problem.

Faith Nakut, Woman Member of Parliament Napak said most of the street children were brought to the street by some big figures in the city and they are using them to collect money on their behalf, therefore even if KCCA takes some of them off the streets, the traffickers will bring new ones not until the authority or government gets the real big dogs behind this deal.

“Most of them were brought on the street by the traffickers who introduced them to a new environment and if they don’t find some people to counsel them like parents, they will find their way to Kampala because the living conditions here are far better than their home places that is why they were fighting, they don’t want to go back because their places are full of instabilities. They are humans also who desire peace and good conditions,” she said.

The lawmaker of Dodoth West, Ben Baatom Koryanga also urged that getting the children off the streets and dumping them in any gazetted place will not be the solution until government comes out and deal with the traffickers and also solve problems in the home regions where most of these kids come from.

“There are many factors that bring these kids on the streets and one of them is the favourable conditions of living here in Kampala, we very well know Karamoja is currently full of insurgences so who deserves to live in such a community? Our call is that to solve this problem once and for all, the government must ensure favourable living conditions in all regions, why are we not seeing street kids from other regions on Kampala streets? Because at least in other regions there is stability and the living conditions there, are at least favourable for their young stars.”

The operation to clear street children off Kampala streets took place yesterday in areas along Jinja road, Entebbe road, Wandegeya, Nakulabye, Bakuuli, Kansanga among others. And according to KCCA Probation Officer, Peter Mayanja Lwanga, the evicted children will be transported to Kobilin Rehabilitation Center in Napak district for two months before they will be reunited with their families.

However, according to observers and recent Human Rights reports on Street Children in Uganda, reuniting these children with their families may not necessarily mean that they will settle comfortably as long as conflict/wars are still taking place in their mother regions.

“The existence of conflicts in Uganda in the north and the northeast for the past thirty years has caused many deaths, including many parents leaving children with only one parent or orphaned. These conflicts also incited fear in families which pushed them to relocate to larger cities. Once there, the family cannot find work and therefore they are not able to provide for their families,” reads one of the reports from the Child Restoration Outreach Support Organization (CROSSO).

Another issue highlighted by recent World bank reports as one of the root causes of street children, is the increasing levels of poverty in Uganda, where approximately 38 per cent of the population lives on less than $1.25 per a day. World Bank estimates that with such little income, families have a hard time providing basic needs for all their children which leads to family violence thus children running from their homes.

Thirdly, domestic violence. A report made in 2013 from the rehabilitation centres where most of these children are dumped revealed that children who witness or experience violence within their homes will sometimes choose to leave home to go to the streets. “These children choose to face the unknown perils of street life rather than continue to face the known dangers of living in their homes.”

In the Human Rights report against Street children in Uganda made in 2014, the Uganda Human Rights Commission also asserted that the government’s approach of “resettling and rehabilitating street children without addressing the factors that send children to the streets is an unsustainable solution in the long run” and argued that “there is an urgent need to address the causes and not just the symptoms.”