Child Labour On Increase in Kamuli District as Leaders Appeal for Joint Action

Abraham Lincolns

Child labour remains a persistent threat violating rights, damaging health, and disrupting education in Kamuli district, Busoga region an issue that requires stronger laws for improved access to education and joint action at all levels.

Speaking to his voters in Nawanende, Bugulumbya Sub County in Kamuli district, the aspiring chairman LC5 Robert Kalulu aka Ow’ogutwe acknowledged that Kamuli’s dual burden of grappling with entrenched rural poverty heightening the child labour crisis.

Despite government’s commitment to protect children under Article 34(4) of Uganda’s Constitution, Kalulu says KamulI is still prone to dangers related to child labor that comes along with illiteracy, early marriages, crimes and ignorance at its best.

“Though government is commitment to protect children under Article 34(4) of the Constitution, Kamuli remains prone to risks associated to child labor that comes along with illiteracy, early marriages, crimes and ignorance,” Kalulu said.

According to survey by the Lutheran World Federation (LWF), the alarming levels of child labour in the poverty-stricken Busoga sub-region, painting a stark picture of widespread exploitation driven by poverty is due to weak enforcement of child protection laws and entrenched cultural practices.

However, Kalulu noted that hundreds of children in Kamuli district are dropping out of schools leaving many trapped in hazardous and exploitative labour, including sugarcane cutting, charcoal burning, sand mining, street hawking, and in some cases transactional sex.

He affiliated the growing problem to incompetent leaders whom he described as self-seekers with no mission and objectives to change lives of the poor who are the core victims of child labour yet ordinances passed by the local government alone can uplift people’s lives.

Kalulu who is an independent candidate is an educationist and the director for Child Empowerment program Kamuli, a non-government organisation that embarked on empowering a girl child by increasing her power of choice providing robust practical solutions to end child labour in the district.

“We need to provide practical solutions to end child labour particularly among communities in Busoga where children are used in the sugar cane shambas. Most of them are the bread winners to take care of their elderly grand parents and siblings hence a need to provide robust measures under my leadership”, Kalulu said.

By bringing some vulnerable boys and girls back to school, Kalulu emphasizes that as a leader with more authority, there is a need for empowering the young generation to address this delicate challenge by priotizing mobilization of the masses to desist from manipulating the young men for cheap labour.

In Busoga, widespread land loss and sugarcane out-grower schemes are pushing families to send their children into plantations rather than classrooms thus education being traded for survival, perpetuating generational cycles of poverty and vulnerability.

The Kamuli LC5 tight race comes at a time with a political vacuum after the incumbent Late Kuwembula Mugudhe perished from a road accident in June this year bringing new faces on board including Kalulu Robert, also known as Owo’gutwe (Independent), Dhizala Kaloli (NRM), Mutebe Francis (FDC) and Ndegwe Mubarak (Independent).

Kalulu appealed for joint action from all stakeholders ranging from government, civil society, the private sector, and communities to work together to protect the nation’s most vulnerable to make ensure that every child enjoys a life of dignity, free from exploitation and full of promises.