First Lady to rid Kampala of street children

By Sheila Naturinda 

Posted  Tuesday, August 9  2011 at  00:00

Kampala

Before the end of this month, Kampala streets will not have street children and their mothers, First Lady Janet Museveni, announced yesterday.

Working with the Ministry of Gender, Labour and Social Development, Ms Museveni, also the Minister in charge of Karamoja Affairs, told MPs that all Karimajong children will be re-settled in a safer place, given education and skills training offered to the mothers.

“My ministry is not charged with the Karimojong children on the streets, but because they have become the majority, we feel called upon to do something about their predicament,” Ms Museveni said. She said the children will be taken to stay at Masulita Childrens’ Home in Luweero District and begin studies while their parents undergo hands-on skills training.

Ms Museveni said when the rehabilitation of Koblem Reception Centre is complete, the children and their mothers will return home and start a new life away from city streets.

The centre, which used to be a vocational training centre in Moroto, is being rehabilitated by the Karamoja Affairs and Gender ministries to accommodate former Karamoja street children. “We could not remove them quickly because there was no ready abode for them, otherwise they would be forced to return to the streets,” Ms Museveni said. She, however, did not divulge the details of the removal process.

Kampala City Council over several years tried taking the children off the streets to Kampiringisa rehabilitation homes, but they returned almost immediately. The street children and their teenage mothers cited appalling conditions at Kampiringisa for their return to the street where they live by begging.

Children as young as three years are often seen seated on street pavements with their hands stretched out -begging, as their mothers watch from a distance. They brave the hot sun, dust and rain as they beg for what to eat. Many of them spend their nights in makeshift structures, with dilapidated, leaking and overcrowded rooms in Kisenyi slum, Kampala. They claim to have been forced out of their homes in Moroto and Kotido districts by famine and cattle rustling and are looking for a better life in town centers like Kampala, Jinja and Mbale.