MPs want funds for resettling street children audited

By Francis Lubega

15^th Dec 2021

A section of lawmakers on Parliament’s Committee of Gender, Labour and Social Development is demanding an audit into all funds released by Government to resettle street children especially from the Karamoja region, after realizing an increase in their numbers on Kampala streets.

The call was made by Flavia Kabahenda, the Chairperson Gender Committee while interfacing with officials from Kampala Capital City Authority who had been summoned to respond to concerns over the increasing number of street children in Kampala especially those hailing from the Karamoja region.

This follows a motion tabled by the Napak District Woman MP Faith Nakut who asked Parliament to urge Government to respond to the plight of Karimojong children enslaved in street begging and forced labour.

Kabahenda said, recently the Government allocated 3bn to Ministry of Gender and during the first Covid lockdown 2.4bn shilling was also released to remove street children off Kampala streets but no accountability has been tabled to Parliament to thast effect.

However the Acting Director Strategy Management Robert Kyukyu, informed the Committee that currently, in April 2020, KCCA alongside the Ministry of Gender rescued 202 children from the streets and quarantined them at Nakivubo Blue Primary School for two months.

He also added that Kampala homes to 700 street children with most of them living in Kisenyi and Katwe areas and when KCCA attempted to repatriate the children back to Karamoja, the plan was thwarted by the local politicians who told the children to remain in Kampala and not return in Karamoja.