Gov't warns against drug trafficking and prostitution

By Josephine Maseruka  

                   
State minister for International affairs Okello  Oryem has sounded a warning to those engaged in prostitution and drug trafficking that the government of Uganda won’t defend them in anyway.

He also said that those caught in the vices “will also be charged again when they return to Uganda because they are damaging the country’s image abroad and that of good Ugandans.”

The minister has made the remark  during a press briefing at the ministry’s headquarters in Kampala. He was responding to a question on what the government has done to help out Ugandans arrested in drug trafficking and prostitution especially in Malaysia and Thailand.

He stated, “No one should engage in such criminal acts and expect the government to protect them because they are abusing the name of Uganda and her people.”

He however said that although they do not condone crime,” we have the obligation as government to ensure they access lawyers, treatment and Counseling services.”

Many Ugandan women are increasingly becoming a target of rackets of criminals in Malaysia where they are promised lucrative jobs, but end up being sexually exploited and vehicles for illicit drugs.
Some of the traffickers of Ugandan women for sexual exploitation are also Ugandans.

In October a  Malaysian judge sentenced a Ugandan woman, Specioza Nalwadda, 38, to two years in prison for trafficking another Ugandan woman,  Faridah Namakula, 30, for sexual exploitation in December last year.

Nalwadda’s accomplice Richard Kuteesa, 35, who was earlier arrested was acquitted by the same court.
Nalwadda had lured  Namakula to go to Malaysia for a caretaker job, but when she arrived in Malaysia, the former confiscated her passport and forced her into prostitution.

Trafficking of persons is a crime in the Uganda's Anti-Trafficking in Persons Act of 2008 and a person convicted faces a punishment from 15 years in jail to death.

According to Uganda Police records, the rackets are well coordinated with link persons in Uganda, Malaysia and other Asian countries.

Some girls were rescued by Malaysian Police and brought back in January while others disappeared.
The 3 detained Ugandan women who were arrested over  trafficking and the 21 Uganda women who ended up as sex slaves in Malaysia could face a 15-year jail sentence which is mandatory in that country.

However, according to minister Okello’s warning they will be charged again in Uganda after serving that sentence in a foreign country.