Police hold 21 children over crimes in Bushenyi

Police in Bushenyi District are holding 21 children arrested in connection with criminality.

The children were detained following security operations launched on Monday last week aimed at curbing increasing crime in the district.

The District Police Commander (DPC), SSP John Bosco Sserunjogi, said they had long warned about unruly boys who were becoming a security threat.

“We discovered that these children, who mainly deal in scrap collection, are breeding criminality. They are used by scrap dealers to steal both plastic and metallic property,” he said on Monday.

Mr Sserunjogi added that the children arrested are aged between 10 and 15 years and are reportedly from sub-counties of Kyamuhunga, Nyabubare, Kyeizooba, and Bushenyi-Ishaka Municipality.

They have been hiding in unfinished buildings.  “Imagine they live in towns without parental guidance. They easily pick up on wrong habits since some of them spend nights in incomplete buildings,” he said.

He added: “We have already received complaints of these boys raping other children in town at that young age. Some are on drugs and alcohol, which influences them to involve themselves in criminality.”

Mr Serunjogi further noted that four of the children have been taken to court and remanded to Kabale remand home on charges of attempted murder. Others are being kept in police cells at Bushenyi Central Police Station.

“Police have embarked on a journey to look for their parents, but only one parent of the 21 has come and when we sent him to bring clarification from area chairperson that he is the father, he never returned until now,” he said.

He also blamed parents for failing to cater to their children’s needs, who end up loitering in town instead of being in a school where scrap dealers expose them to money at an early age.

“We are also hunting for scrap dealers who employ them, they shall be charged with child labour,” he said.

The NRM chairperson for Nyakabirizi Division in Bushenyi-Ishaka Municipality, Mr Wilson Karuhanga, said parents need to take parenting seriously.

“Let these boys be punished now that they are at the police, some time back, a group like this one stole scrap from St Kagwa Boarding Primary School. They were arrested and we were lenient to release them only to hear they had stolen again more items,’’ he said.

Mr Karuhanga tasked the government to introduce special schools for such children where they can be disciplined.

Mr Robert Atuhairwe, the Bushenyi RDC, said kids are answerable to the law like any other citizen.

“Minors are protected only when they are victims, but if they are the ones putting the security at stake, they should be held accountable, let them be put into remand homes as long as it is through the right procedure,’’ he said. Mr Karuhanga, however, noted that his office will consider rehabilitation of kids.

Crime statistics. 

Bushenyi District has registered 683 criminal cases in the last six months with 235 cases in May and June alone. The majority of these cases are robberies and theft.