Parental negligence has been cited as one of the major drivers of sexual exploitation that is skyrocketing among children. 

The Assistant Commissioner for Youth and Children in the Ministry of Gender, Labour and Social Development (MGLSD), Mondo Kyateka, made the revelation during the national workshop on sexual exploitation and abuse in the country at Golf Course Hotel in Kampala. 

The meeting aimed at finding various proposals for ending sexual exploitation.  

Kyateka said most parents are internally displaced and have no time for their children because they leave home in the morning and come back late in the evening. 

“Parents should advise, nurture, discipline, protect and speak with their children about the right things because what they get from their peers is misleading,” he said. 

Kyateka noted that there are a lot of incidents of sexual exploitation of children in schools, homes, and communities, but still go unnoticed because there is no communication between parents and their children. 

“Societies have also become more perverse and want to try out so many things because of deception and some people still misconceive and still sleep with virgin young girls for their personal and archaic reasons. Accordingly, sugar mummies and daddies have taken advantage of the teenagers in return for material gains,” he said. 

“The scar you get when abused in childhood will never go away,” he added. 

Kyateka also pointed out that the money used in fighting violence against children including teenage pregnancies, and sexual abuse, would rather be used in developing other sectors if parents were nurturing and protecting their children. 

Mondo Kyateka Assistant Commissioner, Youth Uganda Ministry of Gender, Labour and Social Development addressing the media during the workshop on enhancing legal, policy and other measures to end child sexual exploitation and abuse in Uganda at Golf Course Hotel Kampala

“The cost of violence against children is sh700b in a year and yet the cost of Uganda Development Bank is just sh77b in a year. If parents took absolute responsibilities, this money would be used to renovate the alarming potholed roads and other sectors,” he said. 

Caroline Bankusha, a child protection researcher from the Uganda Child Rights NGO Network (UCRNN), said the digital world has also played a big role in separating the child from a parent. 

“The first person a child would greet in the morning at home is a friend from social media instead of a parent who they are within the house,” she noted. 

Bankusha said reports show that children talk more with their friends and siblings at the expense of their parents. 

She further added some children live in poverty-stricken families and have been sexually exploited by the very people known to them who are sometimes the breadwinners within their homesteads. 

“Children in this situation will never report the people they stay with in case of sexual exploitation because of fear,” she added. 

She pointed out that some children are unable to respond to the asked questions during court sessions because they are mentally unstable. 

“Some children abuse drugs, they can’t answer questions asked because they are intoxicated with alcohol and other drugs consumed,” she said. 

According to Samali Wakooli, the Assistant Director of Public Prosecutions and head of the Gender, children, and sexual offenses department, some parents have gone ahead to withdraw different cases reported to them because of the influence on money. 

“Unfortunately, the parents are the only beneficiaries after claiming the money yet their children were the victims,” she said. 

She later revealed they have introduced a new system in the prosecution office called the prosecutor-guided investigation which would help in getting the required information, evidence, and reports for a fast completion of cases once files are brought.