Prime
Luweero leaders battle crimes against children
Central Youth MP Agnes Kirabo (right) inspects exhibition stalls of children showcasing the different craft works at the Day of the African Child at the weekend in Kikyusa Sub-county, Luweero District. PHOTO / DAN WANDERA
What you need to know:
- The District Probation and Welfare Office in Luweero reveals that the child offenders could be linked to a racket of criminals taking advantage of children to execute crime in exchange for small gifts.
While Luweero District still struggles to counter the high rate of child abuse, authorities are worried about the increasing cases of child offenders linked to high profile criminals.
The District Probation and Welfare Office in Luweero reveals that the child offenders could be linked to a racket of criminals taking advantage of children to execute crime in exchange for small gifts.
“The district probation office continues to register cases of child offenders linked to profiled criminality cases. We have a recent case of three children that tried to burn one of the boarding secondary schools in the district. The child offenders are linked to many other criminality related cases,” Ms Joyce Namigadde, the district senior probation officer, revealed.
She was speaking at the celebrations to mark the Day of the African Child on June 16 at Kiziba Primary School in Kikyusa Sub-county, Luweero District.
The cases come at a time when the district is battling child abuse with an average of two cases registered per day. Ms Namigadde said the most affected areas are Kikyusa and Kamira sub-counties.
She added: “The district recently registered a case where six children were abandoned by parents in a home. The six children have been handed over to some of the safe homes for safe custody.”
While the district has enlisted services of the para-social workers supported by the different non-government organisations to help in the sensitisation and forwarding of the family-related cases to authorities, cases of defilement and child neglect are on the rise in Luweero District.
Child segregation among children with disability is among the registered cases of childabuse. The district is now rallying the different child rights based organisations to extend attention to the boy children that are now linked to cases involving the child offenders.
“The different organisations have paid attention to the girl children while minding less about the boy children. The boys are now the source of many of the problems raised by the different leaders in Luweero District,” Ms Faridah Nagadya, the district Assistant Chief Administrative Officer-in-charge of Community Services, revealed.
While the country is yet to fully recover from the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic induced lockdown that paralysed the different sectors of the economy, the education sector still suffers as a number of children have failed to go back to school. Other schools are, however, over populated with lack of infrastructure and desks.
“It is unfortunate that in a school such as Kiziba Primary School in Luweero District, less than 50 percent have access to the desks. In a class of 200 pupils, only 60 have the opportunity to sit on desks. We need to address the challenges to attract more children in school,” Ms Agnes Kirabo, the central youth Member of Parliament, said.
