Youth gangs take over neighbourhoods in Jinja 

On the night of August 13, between midnight and 1am, in Budumbuli East Ward, Commercial Zone at Bugembe Town Council, Siraj Agole , 40, was woken up by smoke which had filled his bedroom.
 He tried to open the door but could not. Agole dashed back to wake up his wife so that she could help but they both failed to open the door. 
The couple resorted to making an alarm which attracted their children from the next room. 
Initially, the children thought their parents were fighting but when they saw smoke filtering out of the windows of their house, they escalated the alarm, which attracted neighbours.
“I am told that when the neighbours broke into the house, they found us unconscious and rushed us to Jinja hospital. They had to break one of the walls to access the house. In total, there we were six people in the house, four children and two adults,” Agole recalls.
The botched act of arson was reportedly occasioned by Agole’s disgruntled 21-year-old son.
At first, Angole had no idea who had orchestrated the act but the following day, his older son Suleiman Namonye, called him up. He sarcastically asked him why he had not died in the inferno.
“I told him everyone was in hospital except him. He said he was following me to finish me off  in the hospital. We informed the police and they laid a trap to arrest him. When he came, he was arrested. He admitted being behind the act,” narrates Agole.
Mr Agole explains that the fallout with his son started when the latter refused to attend school. 
Despite forcing him to go to school, the son refused and instead would return home between 11pm and midnight, an act he would not tolerate. 
He  says he told the son that since he had refused to study, it meant he was now mature and could start out on his own. 
For some time, Agole’s son left home and ganged up with a group of street children in the area.
Early last month, the son followed him to his shop in Bugembe Trading Centre where he runs a hardware shop and demanded that as his child, he is entitled to accommodation and care. 
Agole says his son threatened to kill him and automatically inherit the property as heir if his demands were not met.
In spite of his father’s offer, the 21-year-old was not easily satisfied. 
“I told him to go to my brothers in Mbale so that they parcel out a piece of land where he can build but he refused, saying he wants land in Bugembe,” Agole adds.
Police reaction
Mr Abbey Ngako, the Kiira region police public relations officer, says he is aware of Namonye’s case.
 Mr  Ngako confirms that the boy was arrested by the police as he trailed his father to finish him off on his Jinja hospital bed. “When we arrested him, he said the reason he did it was because his father denied him as his son. He did not regret his action. He claimed that his father refused to give him land on which to build his house,” he says.
Mr Ngako reveals that Jinja Central Police station has received several complaints regarding youth of Namonye’s age, most of whom have flocked to the streets and relocated to the railway line after being expelled from Bugembe Trading Centre.
He says the group, who call themselves the smart gang, are children of prominent people in Bugembe town.
 He reveals that people cannot report the children to police because they fear retaliation from their parents, majority of whom are landlords.
Police say crimes such as stabbing, snatching valuables, rape and burglary, among others have increased in Bugembe, Walukuba and Mafubira areas, all suburbs of Jinja City.
Mr Ngako says the situation seems to have worsened during the Covid-19 lockdown as many parents are failing to play their role.
“Some men are running away from their homes and abandoning children with women. Most of these are people who were not officially married but cohabiting.  A parent cannot discipline a child because they will be asked where they have been all this time to discipline the child, which sparks off quarrels,” he said.
Mr Ngako says before the lockdown, men would spend little time at home as women fended for the families.
Ms Prossy Nakiwala, the chief executive officer  for Community Media, Film and Dialogue,  says ever since government instituted the lockdown in March, some organisations whose operations were most affected include those dealing with gender-based violence.
Ms Nakiwala  says many organisations  had to halt their operations because public gatherings, public and private transport were banned. 
However, she says their organisation was able to continue delivering services through community-based news reporters who, they trained to identify cases of domestic violence and link them to duty bearers like the police family protection unit and community development officers.
How it’s done
Ms Nakiwala says they identify fairly educated and active members of a community, whom they train to investigate issues  child abandonment, parents who fail to provide for their families, poverty in homes, HIV/Aids related incidents and other cases of gender-based domestic violence. 
The community reporters gather information on the root cause of the instability and this forms a basis for conducting dialogues where other members of the community are invited to deliberate on issues affecting them.
On September 6, a similar dialogue was held at Budondo, in Kimaka Division and it was relayed live on one of the local radio stations. 
Ms Nakiwala says during the call-in session, callers from Bugembe Division alerted them about the rising cases of gender-based violence in the area.
She says during the Covid-19 lockdown, domestic violence  cases increased because people were staying together for longer hours which was not the case before.
 She adds that new HIV/Aids infections in families  have led to violence.
“We were told that when a partner tests HIV-positive, the other chases them away. Often, the couple does not know who infected the other,” she reveals.

Lockdown effect
Ms Prossy Nakiwala, the chief executive officer for Community Media, Film and Dialogue, says ever since government instituted the lockdown in March, some organisations whose operations were most affected include those dealing with gender-based violence.