Karamojong girl begging on the streets of Kampala

Posted by Eyeing Africa (?, Uganda) on 4 February 2009 in Documentary & Street and Portfolio.

The streets of Kampala are filled with begging Karamojong street kids. Their parents often left Karamoja (a underdeveloped and marginalized region in NE Uganda) in hopes of finding a better life in Kampala. There are reports that the government routinely rounds up these children and takes them to child prisons. One Karamojong man I interviewed stated the following, “The number of our children has been reduced because they (the police) have taken them (the street kids) to Kapenta (local jail). At Kapenta you will cry when you see there. They lock the room with the children and it smells so bad. Insects and mosquitoes are in there. When you get there they will not give you food for 4 days on the 5th day they will give you something small. They will take the children when the mother does not even know. Now like yesterday they (the government) took 200 kids from the streets. Young ones even. They will keep them even up to one year."

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