2,000 Ugandan children trafficked for sexual exploitation in 2024

KAMPALA, Uganda

At least 1,937 Ugandan children have been trafficked for sexual exploitation this year alone according to the ministry of Internal Affairs.

Derrick Higenyi Basalirwa, the deputy national coordinator Office for Trafficking in Persons under the ministry of Internal Affairs, said most of the children are trafficked from their parents’ homes with dubious promises and they end up being deployed for sexual activities within Uganda. 

“Child trafficking for sex and labour exploitation is alarming. We need to do a lot to address this problem. Other than 1,937 children trafficked for sex exploitation, 658 were victims of both sex and labour exploitation,” Basalirwa said.

Basalirwa’s alarm on child sex and labour exploitation is consistent with the recent incident in Kira where a mother, Moreen Nakagwe, paid Shs 30,000 to a woman to get her a housemaid, and the bodaboda rider instead brought a nine-year-old girl. 

“This lady said she knew girls seeking to work as maids. She told me they were in Iganga, Mayuge and Pallisa district. She asked me to pay Shs 30,000 for transport. I paid and she told me the maid was going to be delivered by the bodaboda man. I was shocked to see a nine-year-old girl being brought to me as a maid,” Nakagwe said.

To Nakagwe’s shock, the nine-year-old pleaded to be allowed to serve as a maid because she had been sent by her mother and ordered not to return home until she got a job. Nakagwe explained that she felt pity when the innocent girl narrated how she was being sent to work by her mother.

“The girl cried to me, she repeatedly begged me to let her serve as my maid. I couldn’t imagine that a nine-year-old willing to be a caretaker of my two children with the eldest being six years old. It was a child that deserves to be taken care of seeking to be employed because of the mother’s instructions,” Nakagwe added. 

At the end of the day, Nakagwe worked with local authorities and police to search for the girl’s mother in Pallisa. According to Basalirwa, sometimes parents and guardians are conduits in incidents of child trafficking.

In total, 4,966 people including adults have been trafficked of which children make 79 per cent. More than 93 per cent of the victims were trafficked domestically which calls for more sensitization about the dangers of sex and labour exploitation. 

Areas that have topped in trafficking include Mbale with 373 cases, Kampala Metropolitan with 313, Masaka with 257 crimes, Jinja with 253 incidents, Nakawa with 233 crimes, Gulu with 173, Karamoja with 173, Mukono with 161 and Mubende with 164.