Museveni closure of schools forces Jinja kids to the streets

After missing nearly two years of school due to President Museveni’s directives known as Covid-19 lockdown measures, school-aged children in Jinja City have turned to street vending. This has raised fears that a whole generation of Ugandan children will be lost as a result of the effect of school closures and disruption of normal life brought about by Covid-19 restrictions.

On the streets of the city, children aged 7 to 15 can be found selling tomatoes, boiled eggs, onions, and sweet bananas, among other items.

Officials in Jinja have expressed alarm over the increased number of child vendors, claiming that it is due to several parents losing their jobs as a result of the Covid-19 outbreak. It has been discovered that the majority of the youngsters are from Masese-Walukuba in Jinja South East, Bugembe and Mafubira in Jinja North, and Bugerere in Kayunga District, among other places.

Last Wednesday, a 10-year-old Primary Five student told this media that his father, who worked in one of Jinja’s steel mills, and mother, who worked at a hotel, had lost their jobs owing to the coronavirus pandemic.

“My mother buys bananas and sends them to me and my sister to sell on the streets,” the child explained, adding that they are punished if they return home without making any sales. The children also said that gangs of street kids steal their money, making them afraid to come home. Mr Hassan Ssebandeke, a teacher in Wandago, Mayuge District, noted that the community’s poverty has contributed to the widespread use of child labor in many ways.

“Some expectations for the girl child exist, such as sanitary pads; if the child does not have these, she becomes vulnerable,” Mr Ssebandeke explained. Mr Alfred Ochaya, executive director of the non-governmental organization Support and Love via Education International, said Covid-19 caused many individuals to lose their jobs, and the damage is now trickling down to the children. Mr Ochaya stated, “I recently came across a child in the city late at night who was terrified to go home because the four trays of eggs he was given to sell were taken by unknown people.” Children whose parents have not stayed with them at home have been the most affected, he noted. The home learning project, according to Mr Paul Kagolokakyomya, head of Ghetto Native Initiative in Masese, Jinja South-East, has not helped most school-aged children.

Child labor is rampant in the area, according to Ms Juliet Faith Namanse, executive director of the Busoga Governance and Social Accountability Network, as parents send their children to work in sugarcane farms.

Mr Frank Mugabi, a public relations officer with the Ministry of Labour, Gender and Social Development, claimed there are roughly two million youngsters aged five to 17 years old working in the country.

“Because children are not in school, the number could be larger in the current circumstance (of Covid-19). Mr Mugabi said in an interview that the ministry will execute the National Child Labour Policy of 2006 and the National Action Plan on Elimination of Child Labor from 2017 to 2022 to put an end to the practice.

He went on to say that employers are not allowed to hire children under the age of 16, and that labor officers at the district level are obligated to perform frequent inspections in accordance with government rules in order to eliminate child labor.