The Minister responsible for Youth and children Nakiwala Kiyingi has bragged that the City is now free from street children thanks to joint operations that were carried out by the Kampala Capital City Authority (KCCA), Uganda Police Force and the Ministry of Gender Labor and Social Development.
In the joint operations, 623 street children were removed taken to different gazetted homes where they are being kept to date.
“They are currently kept at Kapiringisa juvenile rehabilitation centre in Mpigi district, Koblingi and Kasulita but we have plans of increasing these homes to 139 such that they can accommodate all of them in the country,” she said
She added: “Security has been tightened, (around the rehabilitation homes) therefore is not easy for them to escape and and everyone who goes claiming that they are the parents of these children are held captive for neglecting their children.”
She revealed this while addressing the press at the Uganda Media Center about the World Day for Youth which is slated to take place in Jinja on Monday August 12.
Nakiwala said that the government has created an environment which helps the children to study both during the week and engage in different sports activities to prevent them from coming back to streets.
“We have 118 children who are engaged in sports of their choice and this helps them never to miss the life of the street where they are used to be,” she said.
She added that on June 31, the government released one billion shillings out of the planned UGX 3.4bn that is required to completely remove all street children in Kampala and other surrounding areas.
“We distributed this money to all the three parties and also bought IPads for different district officials in 112 districts to help us to monitor and know where these children are and if the government releases the remaining UGX 2.4bn, we shall remove children from all streets in Uganda,” she said.
