KCCA to enact child protection law

Kampala Capital City Authority (KCCA) has unveiled a new law to get children off the streets of Kampala.

The Child Protection Ordinance which is still in draft form, was presented before the Gender Standing Committee of KCCA, and it waits approval from the legal team and the authority of the Lord Mayor.

Speaking during a policy dialogue and consensus meeting held on Tuesday in Kampala, Harriet Mudondo, the Director for Gender Community and Protection at KCCA said, the law is a strategy to save the city from the influx of street children.

She said the regulation will bring to book all the adult offenders who profit from the children on the streets.

Mudondo added: the adult offenders who give shelter to the children shall not be spared.

According to research data presented by KCCA, Kampala grapples with the highest influx of street children compared to other districts.

The city has a total of 2600 children between the ages of seven to 17 years who live on the streets.

Damon Wamara, the Country Director Dwelling Places, revealed that the children are auctioned in Arapai Market in Soroti at 20,000shs before they are trafficked to Kampala, Jinja, Mbale and beyond boarders.

Later, they are deployed on the streets and each of the children is expected to collect sh20,000 per day. The adult vendors collect a total of about 6 million shilling per month and only 20,000 shilling is sent as reward to the parents.