Poor parenting leading juveniles to remand homes

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The Assistant Commissioner, Youth, and Children, Ministry of Gender, Labour and Social Development, Francis Kyateka Mondo, has blamed the rising cases of child crimes on poor parenting.

According to Mondo, many of the crimes committed by children are because parents are not involved in their lives.

“We have so many parents in this country who have not graduated to become parents. They are not parenting anymore, the reason we term them as internally displaced parents (IDPs),” he said.

He added, “Another category of parents are suffering from TB, they are too busy for their children, and so, children tend to look after themselves and get tempted to commit crimes, and that is how they end up in remand homes,” he said.

Mondo said if only parents could rediscover themselves as fathers and mothers before they become parents, there would be less crime, therefore, less demand for the services of remand homes.

Mondo Kyateka, Assistant Commissioner, Youth and Children, Ministry of Gender, Labour and Social Development remarks during the launch of the boy child uplifting project in Naguru Remand Home, Kampala on Friday, July 7, 2023. (All Photos by Shamim Saad)

“Ugandans produce even when they don’t have to. Statistics show that 46% of the pregnancies in this country are not planned for, people just get pregnant, produce their children, and later abandon them. We have set up Naguru Reception Center to encourage domestic adoption,” he stated.

Mondo remarked during the launch of the Boy child uplifting project held at the Naguru Remand Home in Kampala on Friday, July 7, 2023.

Currently, the country has seven remand homes across, the eighth is under construction in Moroto, one rehabilitation centre and one national reception centre for care and protection, and are all congested according to the Warden of Naguru Remand Home, Mary Kyomugisha.

She said the number of juveniles on remand is three girls and 155 boys totaling 158 with 99 serving capital offences, 59, non-capital offences and pending high court are 22.

“There are repeated crime tendencies with many children. Sadly, I have seen them come back to the remand homes several times and end up in Luzira when they become adults,” she noted.

Joyce Odoki Sadoori, President Rotary Club of Upper Kololo remarks.

Kyomugisha further said only 20% of juveniles in conflict with the law; make it to the national rehabilitation centres depending on the crime and availability of their parents, adding the majority stop at the remand home level.

She attributed children getting in criminal tendencies to not having a choice simply because they find themselves born in broken families, without parental guidance and support plus a hostile community.

Kyomugisha alluded that the gender ministry gets overwhelmed with the number of remand homes coupled with budgetary problems, which are on and off at times.

She suggested that petty offences like theft, assault, and housebreaking should be handled at the Local Council and Police level and reverted to the community because it is so heartbreaking to detain the children who mingle with the ones who have graduated into robbers, using pavers to kill people and are being inducted by adults.

“I would love to receive children who have committed serious crimes and have gone to the extreme end then we do rehabilitation but there are those who are still innocent when you look at them, they should rethink before police arrest can we look for their parents, have a dialogue with them and forge a way forward,” she highlighted.

Edward Kakembo Nsubuga, District Governor, and Members of the Rotary Club of Upper Kololo cut a ribbon during the launch of the boy child uplifting project.

Kyomugisha thanked the Rotary Club (RC) of Upper Kololo for cementing the relationship between them further by coming in with a long-term project of uplifting the boy child for the livelihood program.

On her part, the President, RC Upper Kololo Joyce Odoki Sadoori said they donated 500 chicks to the remand home to do an economic community development poultry project.

“We are donating these chicks to be used to kill the boys. We thank our partners, hotel Lavena who are going to purchase the birds to help in the sustainability of the project, and Nutrinova for giving us the information that we needed, the technical support, and being able to supply the chicks and continue with the training of the boys,” she said.

She said the project will skill the boys and in return, they will be achieving areas of rotary focus of economic and community development, basic education, and literacy and skills so that when they go back home, they will be able to start their own businesses, compete in the market and reduce repeating cases for the offences they committed.

Sadoori appealed to the gender ministry to support the Directorate of Industrial Training (DIT) certification which costs sh70,000 so that the boys can receive certificates to compete for jobs outside detention.

dward Kakembo Nsubuga, District Governor remarks.

About the Boychild uplifting program

The Chairperson Boychild Uplifting program, Jennifer Mirembe Ssensuwa, said the journey of the signature program started by visiting several prisons where they discovered that out of 2000 prisoners, only 9% are ladies and 91% are males.

“The prison wardens actually call them the repeat customers because when our boys and young men are in prison after the time they are released in the public or society they cannot cope and so they commit crimes again and return to prison,” she stressed.

She said according to the records 87% of the initiatives particularly in Uganda are focused on supporting the girl child however, only 13% so far, weighed towards supporting the boy child, and therefore, the society is imbalanced that is the reason the District Governor, Edward Kakembo Nsubuga decided that they proceed and support the boy child.

“We acknowledge that a girl being empowered today, is going to limp if already not emotionally, physically, socially, in all those other aspects of life because the partner the boy child is left behind and therefore, we recognize the very empowered girls that are very bitter because right from their homes there is an imbalance,” Ssensuwa said.

Nsubuga said the second category of young men who will be supported under the boy-uplifting program, will start from 18 years old to 35 years old because the majority out of the 97 boys in young men in prison and other remand homes is between the age of 18 and 35 years old.

“Our role in District 9213 is to ensure that the 120 and 111 Rotaract clubs engage and support. I would like to applaud the RC Upper Kololo for being the first club to support this good cause,” he mentioned.

Nsubuga said that there is need to go back to the drawing board and find out what the problem is with a boy child to ensure that children are raised well to have peace and harmony in the families.