A cry for rehabilitation in Kampiringisa

Some of the new juvenile convicts at the national rehabilitation centre. Officials at the centre say for easy identification, new comers are always not given shirts. PHOTOS BY JOSLINE ADIRU

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Congestion seems to be the least of the problems affecting Kampiringisa, the only juvenile detention facility in Uganda. The conditions are far from being conducive yet the youngsters have nowhere else to go. This is a close look of life within the facility.

It is a sunny Thursday afternoon and 16-year- old- Henry Kidier is seated under a tree in the compound of Kampiringisa National Rehabilitation Centre, Mpigi, narrating his experience at the facility.
Kidier is one of the 12 Juveniles sent to Kampiringisa National Rehabilitation Centre from Gulu Remand Home to serve their sentences, after they were found guilty of different offences.
Kidier was charged with aggravated defilement of a seven-year-old and was sentenced to two years at the rehabilitation centre.
Kidier, who is expected to finish his sentence next month, says he has never received any rehabilitation but was instead subjected to inhumane treatment.
“When I was at Gulu remand home, I learnt how to make beads, farming, how to accept my mistakes and vowed never to repeat them. But ever since I arrived at Kampiringisa, I have learnt nothing –only work and work all the time,” he says before adding, “I wish I had remained at Gulu remand home to serve my sentence. There is nothing to benefit from in this place.”
Language barrier
Another challenge at the facility is the language barrier. Kidier says the widely spoken language is Luganda yet he is familiar with Luo only.
“We depend on the mercy of well-wishers to translate for us in English when instructions are given, yet some of us are not even conversant with English.
“At times when instructions are given, there is no one to help us to translate. We end up being shouted at and being accused of being bad people of the Lord Resistance Army leader, Joseph Kony.
“On many occasions, we are locked in the dark dirty rooms, since we are labelled as stubborn children from the north, yet on many occasions they speak in Luganda, which we do not understand,” Kidier says.

Stigma
Mark Otim, 16, who shares a similar plight, says at the national rehabilitation centre, it has instead brought the bad memories they went through while in the camps.
“We hoped to reform, but we have instead become resentful because of the ill treatment at the so-called rehabilitation centre,” he says.
Otim says the fact that most children from the north are there on defilement charges, they are also being stigmatsed by fellow children and the workers at the facility.
“The in-charge of the facility always discloses our identities to other children and whenever we pass we are pointed at by both fellow children and administrators,” he narrates.

Call for regional rehabilitation centres
Gulu Resident judge Margret Mutonyi recently led a team of probation officers and members of children’s rights NGOs within Acholi for a visit to the rehabilitation centre.
During the visit, she condemned the manner in which the children are being locked up in dirty cells and made to do hard labour.
“There is more reason to have regional rehabilitation centres. Children from each region have their uniqueness in language and needs, if we have regional centres, parents will be able to visit their children and they should be part and parcel of rehabilitation,” says Justice Mutonyi.
Walter Adwar, a children’s rights advocate in Acholi Sub region, says most children from the north are from internally displaced people’s camps, where they used to share huts with other children hence the defilement cases.
He stresses that the in-charge of this rehabilitation centre should give support to these children instead of stigmatising them based on the defilement cases that majority have committed.
“We are afraid these children will come back home and become hardcore criminals, since they may not be rehabilitated due to the challenges they face in Kampiringisa. It is very urgent to have a rehabilitation centre in the north,” Adwar says.

What Kampiringisa management says
The in-charge of Kampiringisa Rehabilitation Centre, Paul Namonye, accuses parents of the juveniles of abandoning the children.
“We are supposed to work hand in hand with the parents to ensure the rehabilitation process of these children takes effect,” he says.
Geoffrey Loum, a social worker at the facility, says, when children become indisciplined, they get punished and that is what they have been doing at the centre.
“We usually lock those who are naughty in the cell, but not for a very long time” he adds.
Defence for Children International project coordinator, Jane Aanyu Atim, says the purpose of a joint monitoring exercise is to establish the welfare of children in rehabilitation.
“We want to send message to children out there and juveniles in other remand homes, on how they should be better people in life,” Atim says

Martin David Aliker, the chief executive officer Partners and Volunteers International, an NGO that supports children at Gulu Remand Home, says it is unfortunate that children at the national rehabilitation centre are not getting what is entitled to them.
“Some of these children might not get a chance of getting formal education, but if they have acquired vocational skills, they can be able to sustain themselves when they get reintegrated in the communities.”

Challenges
Other challenges at the facility are inadequate food, clothing, beddings, and lack of psychosocial worker to help the children out.
The facility was originally designed to accomodate 150 juveniles, but at times, the number rises to 340.
The facility has only three support staff, emphasising the need for more juvenile facilities.
These statistics paint a grim picture of the juveniles who go through this facility.

3
number of staff at the national rehabilitation centre

150
number of juveniles the centre is supposed to have

340
number of juveniles at the rehabilitation centre