Child prostitution thrives in Mbarara
Red-light district. Kijungu, Kishenyi in Kakoba Division, Biafra and Rwebikona in Kamukuzi and Ruti in Nyamitanga divisions are hotspots for underage female patrons. COURTESY PHOTO
Mbarara- By 11am, bars in the suburbs of Mbarara Town and those on the busy Mbarara-Kabale highway are already teeming with with revellers and young girls of between 13 and 17 years, a common sight nowadays.
Kijungu and Kishenyi in Kakoba Division, Biafra and Rwebikona in Kamukuzi and Ruti in Nyamitanga divisions are the hotspots for underage female patrons.
Mr Baker Ategyeka, 67, a resident of Kijungu, says older women mobilise some of these girls to work as prostitutes.
The women are referred to as ‘aunties’ by the girls, who work in collaboration with bar and lodge owners.
The costs
Our investigation has shown that to take a girl for company within Mbarara, one makes payment of Shs50,000 to the auntie. Outside Mbarara, the cost is Shs100,000. It is the auntie [negotiator] who later pays the girl.
“We charge much more when going outside Mbarara so that in case you don’t become a good customer along the way, I am able to feed and transport back the girls,” says auntie who preferred anonymity.
Mr Ategyeka, who always interacts with the girls, says the auntie pays them between Shs10,000 and Shs20,000 for every customer.
One can have more than 10 girls under her management.
Musa, a boda boda cyclist, says: “These aunties sell them to trailer drivers but take much of the money.”
One of the girls, 15, who hails from Kabuyanda in Isingiro District, says she came to town to make ends meet after her parents failed to educate her.
“At first, this was challenging but I am now used to it,” she says.
She admits they are paid through an intermediary. The same arrangement obtains in Ruti ward.
The mayor, Mr Robert Mugabe Kakyebezi, says they are aware of the practice and have been working with police to curb it.
“We carry out operations and arrest these children and those that benefit from this business. We are in running battles with them, we arrest and prosecute but they come back. We are not about to give up on them,” Mr Kakyebezi says.
The chairperson of Kakoba Division, Hajj Abasi Kazibwe, says parents are increasingly becoming irresponsible and they too, must be prosecuted.
Mr Richard Magara, a resident of Kijungu, says those who ‘buy’ the girls should also be targeted for prosecution.
“These young girls are recruited into prostitution because of the availability of clients, and authorities should also consider arresting the clients,” Mr Magara says.
The Rwizi regional police spokesperson, Mr Samson Kasasira, says the practice is hard to fight because it is extremely secretive.
“They pretend to be customers in those places; it’s not like other brothels where it is easy to identify them. Even these old women claim these are their children,” Mr Kasasira says.
