Manners are learnt from adults!

SIR — Whereas I applaud the government on its move to formulate a law that will ensure the punishment of criminal juveniles I think what should be emphasised most is the upbringing of children right from their families. Only those who have not learnt good manners from home can be punished. otherwise we might have juvenile prisons as full as the adult ones once the law is passed. Today’s family set-up is such that children are grossly detached from their parents to the extent that teaching manners is only left to teachers in schools! Unfortunately over time, many schools have developed their own cultures, good and bad alike. Such cultures like burning school equipment, dodging classes, stealing and in some extreme cases homosexuality and lesbianism normally catch up with innocent children that have not been sensitised or warned by their parents. In the past, almost every term, a student would be killed in Ntare School and Mbarara High arising from the old rivalry of the two schools! Sadly, a student who knows nothing about the grief that death can bring about would easily find himself engaging in reckless acts. but the blame should go back to the student’s upbringing back home. It is so sad that today’s parent leaves home before the children are up and returns home when they are dead asleep. This kind of setting denies the child an opportunity to learn good manners from his or her parents or guardians. The danger is that children behave in anyway they want depending on what they have learnt in school, in discos and in the village where they spend most of their time. Equally sad about juvenile cases is the fact that many of our leaders today do not set good example for the country’s children. Look at the recent nasty exchanges between the local government minister, Kahinda Otafiire and the IGG, then Jim Muhwezi’s invective against the highly respected Justice Ogoola. these two men have children. What are they learning from their parents? But it is not only their children in danger but all other children in the country. Tomorrow the children will find it normal to insult people in authority without finding anything wrong with it. But the juvenile law will catch up with them although it is not exactly their fault. Would we blame them? Certainly not, because they have grown up seeing these things happening and consider them normal! Yes, juvenile law is good in providing punishment but it will not be independently helpful in curbing crime.
in other words the law will not be preventive. It is therefore important that parents draw a timetable in which they devote a good amount of their time to their children’s behavioural and not simply sit back and see Uganda’s usually archaic laws in action. This way, I think the juvenile law will achieve its motive with few child culprits.

Deo T. Kabwende tumusiimede@hotmail.com