Ugandan Children Rented Out to Earn Money on Streets

KAMPALA, Uganda -- Life can be harsh in the Karamoja sub-region, with its arid climate, food shortages, and a tradition of cattle raiding. But for Christine Kokona, life's gotten worse since that night last year she boarded a bus with a stranger for this scruffy, squeezed capital of 1.6 million.

Christine doesn't know her age but appears to be about 8. She wears a tattered, zebra-print dress as she begs along Kampala Road during the day. Around dusk, she feeds mainly on rotten tomatoes and potato scraps at the Owino market then retires for the night to a small room shared by strangers in the slum of Kisenyi for 25 cents a night.

She is the victim of a growing trend here: A child is rented out to a near-stranger for about $10 a month with the promise that the child will be looked after while earning money from begging on Kampala's streets to support the family.

The children are then passed to a guardian who looks after four or five children. The children dutifully hand their alms to the guardians in exchange for shelter and the occasional meager meal, though some are visibly malnourished and have been known to be abused if their daily sums are not deemed sufficient.

Christine says she was beaten and discarded by her guardian before being taken in by another.

Ketty Nandi, from the child and family protection unit of the Kampala police department, said two key traffickers -- who tend to ship the children by bus -- have been arrested since the Trafficking in Persons Act was passed in 2009. She estimates roughly seven main traffickers remain at large.

Road blocks were set up last year between Karamoja -- from where most of Kampala's beggars originate -- and the capital to ferret out children traveling without a parent. But the traffickers have taken to back roads and jungle paths to elude capture.

Last year a bylaw was implemented making it illegal to give to beggars, in an attempt to make charity solicitation less lucrative. But enforcement has been weak.

Every few weeks, authorities round up beggars and place them temporarily in detention centers where they are counseled before being sent to resettlement camps in their home districts.

This has resulted in an overall reduction in the number of beggars on Kampala streets to around 600 -- nearly half the number from several years ago, said Beatrice Ayikoru, a street children desk officer in Uganda's Ministry of Gender, Labor and Social Development.

But with few prospects for income in their home villages, many beggars end up back on the streets or are replaced by fresh faces, providing incentives for traffickers.

"We are mopping while the tap is open," said Mondo Kyateeka, acting commissioner of the ministry's youth and children affairs.

He said the push and pull factors have to be more thoroughly addressed. Efforts to improve conditions in Karamoja have not been adequate, with many beggars still finding better income prospects on Kampala's streets.

Angelina Logiel and her baby daughter, for instance, earned about 25 cents a day collecting firewood back in Karamoja. But she found it wasn't enough to survive. And food rations supplied by the government are no longer, she said.

In Kampala, she can make around $4 a day from begging. But on days when she doesn't make enough to afford the 50-cent fee to sleep in one of the overcrowded rooms in Kisenyi, she curls up on the street instead. When asked whether she would prefer to return home or remain on Kampala's streets, she stared blankly into traffic.

Nongovernmental organizations and government officials recently met with community leaders from Karamoja to hear their needs. Local leaders said fertile land, government assistance in transitioning from a pastoral herding to an agricultural lifestyle, and better health services would address the push factor.

But officials said the government has yet to address these concerns, largely because resources and energies have been channeled into supporting long-ruling President Yoweri Museveni's successful re-election bid last month. His campaign was reported to be the most expensive in the country's history, utilizing state funds even though Uganda's budget is nearly 30 percent donor-funded.

Ministry officials said they are doing what they can with minimal resources and are adopting a multi-pronged strategy that involves more direct involvement with resettlement efforts, addressing push and pull factors, greater surveillance of suspected traffickers, more cooperation with local authorities and stronger prosecution.

 

Some mothers have been charged with parental abuse. Others have been offered work as street sweepers and other menial occupations, though many have remained because begging offers more financial gain than sweeping.

But with the Museveni administration's uneven record on implementation and a history of corruption, some observers are less than optimistic the push and pull factors are going to be thoroughly addressed anytime soon.

That led at least one lawmaker to take the law into her own hands last year. Winfred Kiiza, a Ugandan member of parliament, slapped a woman beggar with a malnourished child in police custody.

"When I was told the story of women planting the children on the streets and going into hiding, I was disgusted," Kiiza said at the time. "I was hurt when I saw the poor health of the child and realized that the children are not the direct beneficiaries of the money collected."

The case made headlines, and more than a few Ugandans rushed to the Kiiza's defense. But nearly a year later, the slap has yet to net the results she desired.