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How the street gets its beggars
The sight of children begging during traffic jam is a common one on Kampala’s streets and it seems to be getting worse. PHOTOs BY Michael Kakumirizi
What you need to know:
The issue of people on the street has been severally discussed, and there have been efforts to take them away. However, the number of people on the streets seem to increase each day. We explore how some people end up on the streets.
We often meet beggars on the streets of Kampala and other developed towns. In Kampala, especially, these include everyone from children and the elderly, to people with disabilities to people who look like they should be doing anything else but beg on the streets.
For the children, elderly and those with disabilities, many of us are moved to give them a little something so it is not hard to understand why they are on the streets. But there is that category of beggars who don’t come off as beggars when you meet them first. They approach you with strange excuses like the loss of a parent, sick babies and stolen wallets or handbags, among others.
Recently, I was in the Old Taxi Park at around 9pm, when a man who must have been in his early 20s, approached me asking for help. His tale was that his brother had been in a car accident so he wanted money to clear the hospital bill. I felt touched and gave him some money.
As I was still at the stage waiting for taxi with a group of other people, the same boy came back telling me that his mother had been knocked dead by a trailer on the Northern Bypass. He thus wanted us give him money to pick the body from Mulago hospital mortuary and take it for burial in Bushenyi. I was able to recognise him and when I tried to approach him, he took off. Since then, I have met him many times using the same excuse or a version close to it.
How they get onto the streets
For the people using sob stories to get money on the streets, circumstances have forced them to become con artists of sorts.
By trial
One woman who says her name is Evelyn walks around Kampala Road, Bombo Road and near the taxi parks, saying she is Shs1,000 less to make her fare.
“That amount is small for some people so they usually give it to me. If I ask more than 10 people, that’s already Shs10,000. I use that money to pay rent and get food,” she says. Evelyn is well groomed –she wears her hair in what we like to call the Janet cut, her clothes are well pressed, her shoes don’t give away the fact that she walks around a lot. Yet she is in fact a beggar.
“I have been begging since 2007 because I tried to apply for a job and failed to get one. One day, I found myself in town without transport and asked a stranger to help me, and they did without any hustle,” she narrates how she took on begging.
“When I realised how easy it was, I aksed another person and they also gave me. Then I decided to do it every day,” she says.
Scrupulous ways
There allegations that some beggars, mostly children, are transported from different parts of the country by people with self-interests to beg money on streets. For instance, in August last year, a story run on local and international media saying Pastor Robert Ssenfuma had been arrested by police with the help African Network for the Prevention and Protection against Child Abuse and Neglect (ANPPCAN) for allegedly using children to beg from passers-by on Kampala streets. This came after a tipoff by a concerned businesswoman who complained about a man who would deploy a group of children around shops every morning and pick them in the evenings after begging.
Apio a beggar who seats at Mukwano Arcade narrates how she ended up on the streets. “I came on a bus from Apac District. I lived in a house with my children, where we would only depend on donations from good Samaritans in our village.
“One day, my friend from Kampala came to see me. She advised me to come to Kampala. She said I would get free money from donors.”
Apio, a 53-year-old mother of three girls, continues. “When I came to Kampala, she [the friend] picked me from the bus park. She took me at her home and gave me a wheel chair which I use to come to town. I send some of the money I collect to my children in the village,” she adds.
Deo Kitone, a beggar who I met at the entrance of Nakumatt Oasis says he came to Kampala in 2007. “My friend advised me to come to Kampala saying I would get people who would pay for me school fees.”
Kitone who in his early 20s adds; “When I came, he introduced me to several people; but, they did not help. After a year, I got someone who paid for me school fees but stopped when I was in Senior Three,”
He says when he stopped studying; he would stay home all day. “I was fed up of staying at home alone. I decided to come to town every day in order to earn something that I could help my friend clear some bills.”
Kitone boards a taxi early morning from Kamwokya coming to beg on streets. He mainly stages at Nakumatt’s entrance though he goes to other places like Kampala road and Wandegeya. Kitone, who has club feet, says, “My target is to start up a small business and get rid of begging.”
KCCA take
In July last year, Kampala Capital City Authority (KCCA) announced that it would start arresting anyone found giving money to street children in a bid to discourage people from taking to the streets. According to KCCA, giving money to children is the reason that has kept them on the streets because they know it is profitable.
In an interview with this reporter, KCCA’s deputy public relations officer, Robert Kalumba emphasised, “True we don’t want beggars on streets of Kampala and we’re trying hard to remove them from streets,”
When asked about the KCCA’s move to arrest people who donate money to beggars, Kalumba said, “We haven’t arrested anyone for giving money to beggars; but, we’re still looking into it.”
Whether stopping the public from giving money would keep people off the streets is debatable. What is not, however, is that as long as people are economically constrained, the streets will still be home to some, and a source of a livelihood for others.
children
Daily. Kampala Capital City Authority (KCCA) research indicates that at least 16 children are trooped onto the city streets every day.
Trend. KCCA showed that street children had increased from 4,000 (1993) to 10,000 (2014).
Place of origin. It revealed that over 80 per cent of the street children in Uganda are from Karamoja sub-region.
70%
The percentage by which the number of street children has increased over the year, research shows
