Karamoja MPs want gov’t to clampdown child traffickers
By Ritah Kemigisa
Members of Parliament from the Karamoja sub-region have urged the government to use an iron hand to crack down on child traffickers who they say are responsible for the many children on Kampala streets.
Appearing before the parliament committee on Gender, the Napak woman MP Faith Nakut says trafficking of children to beg on the streets is taking a toll on the region to the extent that parents freely hand over their children to traffickers.
She says in some of the districts in her region, there are no children as parents think there is a good life in Kampala.
Nakut is the mover of a motion for the government to respond to the plight of Karamojong children enslaved in street begging and forced labor.
Meanwhile Michael Tumwesigye, the Executive Director ‘In Need Home’, an NGO working on settling street children from Karamoja says parents in Karamoja are being pushed into ‘renting’ their children into street begging due to poverty and hunger.
