Child trafficking on the rise in Karamoja
Jan 31, 2007
CHRISTINE Nangole does not want to go back home. She would rather remain in Kampala, even though she is frightened that the man who brought her from Matany village, Bokora county in Moroto district, wants to destroy her innocence. Although far away from home, Nangole is determined to defend her chas
By Harriette Onyalla and
Timothy Makokha
CHRISTINE Nangole does not want to go back home. She would rather remain in Kampala, even though she is frightened that the man who brought her from Matany village, Bokora county in Moroto district, wants to destroy her innocence. Although far away from home, Nangole is determined to defend her chastity.
Like hundreds of other girls and women who flee Karamoja every year, this tall, skinny 13-year-old girl was flushed out of her home in what had turned into a do or die contest. Do? Yes, run, as fast as your little legs can take you or get onto any vehicle that will put more distance between you and home. Die? Yes, at home, people die of starvation.
Surprised that in Uganda someone can die of starvation?
The Karimojong culture is strong. It has captivated these pastoral peoples through generations with unrelenting purpose in the face of civilisation. This culture will haul anyone guilty of premarital sex over the coals, unless it is done during the event where a young man chases the girl he has chosen for a wife and ‘mounts’ her. He then marries her.
Karamoja faces endemic cycles of armed cattle raids and counter-raids and successive intervals of long spells of drought, creating serious water and food shortages.
As they leave home, Karimojong women and girls often move in groups. These groups are a common sight in towns like Busia, Tororo, Mbale, Katakwi and on the streets of Kampala. However, the girls are increasingly being picked from home, which means the person who picks them is the only one they know when they reach ‘this other side of the world’.
A report, A Chronic Emergency: Child protection issues among communities in Karamoja region 2006, warns that the children being picked from Karamoja are a case of increasing child trafficking in Uganda.
The report, drawn from a study carried out in the districts of Kotido, Moroto and Nakapiripirit by Save the Children, Uganda, cited insecurity and perennial hunger as the main reasons why children in Karamoja are vulnerable to trafficking.
Parents were being given as little as sh5,000 for their children to be taken away. This means the children are bought with their parents’ cooperation. The report warns that Uganda may be experiencing child trafficking on a much larger scale than is thought.
Other children are taken with the promise of being paid with commodities like cassava, potatoes, maize, posho and beans which are supposed to be sent back home to their parents. Some children are paid with the food they eat and the spot they rest their heads at night. Respondents on the study said it is common for the buyers to renege on their terms and refuse to pay the children.
“This is the reason for the seemingly noticeable sense of helplessness on the part of the district leadership out to stem the trade,†the report adds.
Nangole is a confident girl, but flashes of doubt dart across her eyes casting a dark shadow on her light skin.
A man who works for World Food Programme brought Nangole to Kampala with the promise of sending money and food to her parents at the end of every month as payment for the girl’s work. In 2004, the same thing had happened to her sister, who has never returned home and yet Nangole’s parents still gave her away.
“My sister is also in Kampala but I have never met her. I have been in Kampala for over a year now. I sent for my parents some posho and beans during my first months away from home, but things changed after Uncle Robert started coming to knock on our bedroom door at night while whispering for me to open. I refused to open because I share the bedroom with younger children. When I told his wife, whom I call mummy, he denied it.
“In the daytime, he would find me alone and fondle my breasts. Sometimes I would open for him the gate and he would again fondle my breasts.
One day, I refused to go and open the gate and told mummy all these things. Uncle Robert got cross and threatened to return me home.
“Mummy said I could stay but Uncle Robert was not happy. He refused me to eat at home, so I would work but mummy would just steal for me food. Uncle Robert would slap me when he met me anywhere in the house.
“In the end, I told mummy that I could not stand the torture and I would rather go back home even though home is not good. Uncle Robert was happy and the next day, we set off for Karamoja.
On reaching Jinja, he said we would proceed the next day. But at night he came again knocking on my door. When I refused to open, he threatened to abandon me in Jinja. I didn’t know what I would do if he did that but I refused to open,†she narrates in English which she learnt while playing with other children.
According to Save the Children, the victims’ job descriptions keep changing as the employers find it convenient. Young girls hired to handle household work soon find themselves playing concubines, sexual slaves or prostitutes for sale by their masters.
The report also points to the chilling but possible fact that some of the children are sacrificed in ritual killings and for organ harvesting.
The practice often involves direct child sale, child theft, smuggling and kidnap. The destinations for trafficked children include Katakwi, Busia, Iganga, Jinja, Mbale, Moroto, Tororo and Kampala. Others end up in Kenyan towns like Eldoret, Busia and Malaba.
Despite efforts by local district leaders, the report says there remains unabated movement of children out of Karamoja to their ‘employment points’. Attempts at closing in on the perpetrators of this illicit trade are frustrated due to the nature of its operation.
Unlike previous years when the practice peaked in the months of May to August, the high numbers of children leaving Karamoja continued through 2006 into 2007.
The Police was quick to dismiss reports of child trafficking as false and promised to make independent investigations. The Inspector General of Police, Maj. Gen. Kale Kayihura, said: “We disagree with whoever compiled findings about exporting Karimojong children to Kenya. There is no child trafficking at the moment and we are yet to release our concrete findings to end the hullabaloo,†Kayihura told some sections of the press.
Despite this denial however, the findings in the report seem to corroborate another recent report by the US Department of State (The Protection Project Report 2006), which cites Uganda as a source and transit point for trafficked children.
The State Department report says Uganda is one of the countries yet to pass strong anti-trafficking legislations.
Uganda does not have a specifically comprehensive law on anti-trafficking.
The penal code defines penalties for trafficking-related offences, including procuring a woman for prostitution, detention with sexual intent, sex with a minor under 18, dealing in slaves, and compelling unlawful labour.
While the penal code covers the full scope of trafficking persons, the two reports decry the lack of precedents related to the offence.
Like the US report, the Karamoja study notes a conspicuous inability of the law to punish people caught in this illegal trade.
Livingstone Ssewanyana, the Foundation of Human Rights Initiative Executive director, advises the Government to put in place programmes that will address employment problems as one of the ways to respond to problems of child trafficking.
Hosea Muruka, an advocate of the High Court in private practice, says there is no data on the trafficking in Uganda and neighbouring countries.
“That is why there is a degree of unawareness about its existence. In order to solicit the support of international organisations and lobby the Government, it is imperative that concrete information and data is collected on the magnitude, forms, means and methods of trafficking in Uganda,†Muruka says.
The report calls for immediate and increased early childhood development interventions for children below five years. “There is also need to carry out an assessment to establish what the children were doing and the legal status of people keeping them,†the report adds.
The report called for the re-examination of the disarmament exercise in the region, which, while well-intentioned, has also exhibited serious human rights abuses.
There is also need to establish early warning systems to provide timely information on potential natural and man-made disasters such as drought and cattle rustling activities.
Nangole has been mistreated, threatened and has gone hungry but no punishment is worse than home.
If only she could get the opportunity to work to make things at home better.
If Uncle Robert allows for her to remain in his home, will she give in to his illicit advances, one wonders.
Timothy Makokha
CHRISTINE Nangole does not want to go back home. She would rather remain in Kampala, even though she is frightened that the man who brought her from Matany village, Bokora county in Moroto district, wants to destroy her innocence. Although far away from home, Nangole is determined to defend her chastity.
Like hundreds of other girls and women who flee Karamoja every year, this tall, skinny 13-year-old girl was flushed out of her home in what had turned into a do or die contest. Do? Yes, run, as fast as your little legs can take you or get onto any vehicle that will put more distance between you and home. Die? Yes, at home, people die of starvation.
Surprised that in Uganda someone can die of starvation?
The Karimojong culture is strong. It has captivated these pastoral peoples through generations with unrelenting purpose in the face of civilisation. This culture will haul anyone guilty of premarital sex over the coals, unless it is done during the event where a young man chases the girl he has chosen for a wife and ‘mounts’ her. He then marries her.
Karamoja faces endemic cycles of armed cattle raids and counter-raids and successive intervals of long spells of drought, creating serious water and food shortages.
As they leave home, Karimojong women and girls often move in groups. These groups are a common sight in towns like Busia, Tororo, Mbale, Katakwi and on the streets of Kampala. However, the girls are increasingly being picked from home, which means the person who picks them is the only one they know when they reach ‘this other side of the world’.
A report, A Chronic Emergency: Child protection issues among communities in Karamoja region 2006, warns that the children being picked from Karamoja are a case of increasing child trafficking in Uganda.
The report, drawn from a study carried out in the districts of Kotido, Moroto and Nakapiripirit by Save the Children, Uganda, cited insecurity and perennial hunger as the main reasons why children in Karamoja are vulnerable to trafficking.
Parents were being given as little as sh5,000 for their children to be taken away. This means the children are bought with their parents’ cooperation. The report warns that Uganda may be experiencing child trafficking on a much larger scale than is thought.
Other children are taken with the promise of being paid with commodities like cassava, potatoes, maize, posho and beans which are supposed to be sent back home to their parents. Some children are paid with the food they eat and the spot they rest their heads at night. Respondents on the study said it is common for the buyers to renege on their terms and refuse to pay the children.
“This is the reason for the seemingly noticeable sense of helplessness on the part of the district leadership out to stem the trade,†the report adds.
Nangole is a confident girl, but flashes of doubt dart across her eyes casting a dark shadow on her light skin.
A man who works for World Food Programme brought Nangole to Kampala with the promise of sending money and food to her parents at the end of every month as payment for the girl’s work. In 2004, the same thing had happened to her sister, who has never returned home and yet Nangole’s parents still gave her away.
“My sister is also in Kampala but I have never met her. I have been in Kampala for over a year now. I sent for my parents some posho and beans during my first months away from home, but things changed after Uncle Robert started coming to knock on our bedroom door at night while whispering for me to open. I refused to open because I share the bedroom with younger children. When I told his wife, whom I call mummy, he denied it.
“In the daytime, he would find me alone and fondle my breasts. Sometimes I would open for him the gate and he would again fondle my breasts.
One day, I refused to go and open the gate and told mummy all these things. Uncle Robert got cross and threatened to return me home.
“Mummy said I could stay but Uncle Robert was not happy. He refused me to eat at home, so I would work but mummy would just steal for me food. Uncle Robert would slap me when he met me anywhere in the house.
“In the end, I told mummy that I could not stand the torture and I would rather go back home even though home is not good. Uncle Robert was happy and the next day, we set off for Karamoja.
On reaching Jinja, he said we would proceed the next day. But at night he came again knocking on my door. When I refused to open, he threatened to abandon me in Jinja. I didn’t know what I would do if he did that but I refused to open,†she narrates in English which she learnt while playing with other children.
According to Save the Children, the victims’ job descriptions keep changing as the employers find it convenient. Young girls hired to handle household work soon find themselves playing concubines, sexual slaves or prostitutes for sale by their masters.
The report also points to the chilling but possible fact that some of the children are sacrificed in ritual killings and for organ harvesting.
The practice often involves direct child sale, child theft, smuggling and kidnap. The destinations for trafficked children include Katakwi, Busia, Iganga, Jinja, Mbale, Moroto, Tororo and Kampala. Others end up in Kenyan towns like Eldoret, Busia and Malaba.
Despite efforts by local district leaders, the report says there remains unabated movement of children out of Karamoja to their ‘employment points’. Attempts at closing in on the perpetrators of this illicit trade are frustrated due to the nature of its operation.
Unlike previous years when the practice peaked in the months of May to August, the high numbers of children leaving Karamoja continued through 2006 into 2007.
The Police was quick to dismiss reports of child trafficking as false and promised to make independent investigations. The Inspector General of Police, Maj. Gen. Kale Kayihura, said: “We disagree with whoever compiled findings about exporting Karimojong children to Kenya. There is no child trafficking at the moment and we are yet to release our concrete findings to end the hullabaloo,†Kayihura told some sections of the press.
Despite this denial however, the findings in the report seem to corroborate another recent report by the US Department of State (The Protection Project Report 2006), which cites Uganda as a source and transit point for trafficked children.
The State Department report says Uganda is one of the countries yet to pass strong anti-trafficking legislations.
Uganda does not have a specifically comprehensive law on anti-trafficking.
The penal code defines penalties for trafficking-related offences, including procuring a woman for prostitution, detention with sexual intent, sex with a minor under 18, dealing in slaves, and compelling unlawful labour.
While the penal code covers the full scope of trafficking persons, the two reports decry the lack of precedents related to the offence.
Like the US report, the Karamoja study notes a conspicuous inability of the law to punish people caught in this illegal trade.
Livingstone Ssewanyana, the Foundation of Human Rights Initiative Executive director, advises the Government to put in place programmes that will address employment problems as one of the ways to respond to problems of child trafficking.
Hosea Muruka, an advocate of the High Court in private practice, says there is no data on the trafficking in Uganda and neighbouring countries.
“That is why there is a degree of unawareness about its existence. In order to solicit the support of international organisations and lobby the Government, it is imperative that concrete information and data is collected on the magnitude, forms, means and methods of trafficking in Uganda,†Muruka says.
The report calls for immediate and increased early childhood development interventions for children below five years. “There is also need to carry out an assessment to establish what the children were doing and the legal status of people keeping them,†the report adds.
The report called for the re-examination of the disarmament exercise in the region, which, while well-intentioned, has also exhibited serious human rights abuses.
There is also need to establish early warning systems to provide timely information on potential natural and man-made disasters such as drought and cattle rustling activities.
Nangole has been mistreated, threatened and has gone hungry but no punishment is worse than home.
If only she could get the opportunity to work to make things at home better.
If Uncle Robert allows for her to remain in his home, will she give in to his illicit advances, one wonders.