By Eddie Ssejjoba

The Police in Kampala are to hand over nine school children to the Tanzanian high commission for repatriation after they were trafficked into Uganda.

The officer-in-charge of the child and family protection unit at the Central Police Station, Ketty Nandi, said they were in talks with the Tanzanian high commission to receive the children, who have been kept at the station for over a week.

Nandi said the children were brought to Uganda by Jovans Kamanzi, a Tanzanian.

She added that Kamanzi, who was charged with child trafficking, had got money from the children’s parents in Karagwe in Tanzania after lying to them that he would get them good schools in Uganda.

“But he failed to pay their fees and abandoned them in a dilapidated house in Nakukuba village in Wakiso district for almost eight months without food and other necessities,” Nandi said.

The children, aged between 10 and 17 years, said their parents were not aware of their fate because Kamanzi had been telling them that they were doing well.

“He told us not to bring personal effects like mattresses, saying he would provide them. However, we have nothing to sleep on,” 16-year-old Pience Nikolawusi told the Police.

Nikolawusi said Kamanzi took them to various schools, but failed to pay their fees and they were sent away. The children said they would go picking people’s food in the gardens until villagers threatened to lynch them. This is when they resorted to working in the villages to get food.

Kawempe Police later picked the children and arrested Kamanzi.