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Kasese, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | Residents of Kasese municipality want the municipal leadership to regulate the scrap metal business in town. This comes days after two children sustained injuries in a blast in Kogere cell, Nyamwamba division on Tuesday last week.
It was reported that three children unsuspectingly picked the explosive device with the intention of selling it off to scrap dealers. It exploded leaving two children seriously injured.
Peter Masereka, a resident of Kogere says there is an increasing number of scrap dealers in the town who interest young children to get them all sorts of metallic objects for petty cash.
He reasons that there is need to regulate scrap dealers so that such cases can be avoided and incase of anything, they are easily identified and held accountable.
Esther Masika, another resident says the scrap dealers are taking advantage of children who are not in school to collect for them the materials.
She says that the business has not only exposed children to perilous items but it has also led them to stealing these materials from their neighbourhoods.
Yonah Masereka, a resident of Railway ward wants the local leadership to register all scrap dealers in the area to ease the monitoring of their businesses. He says that he recently lost his old bicycle to suspected thieves he believes would only sell it off to scrap dealers.
Herbert Bwambale, the Nyamwmaba area councilor believes the law can be applied to deter children from engaging in such kind of work but even then, it would take parents to monitor their children for their safety to be established.
Tumwine Marutsya, the acting Rwenzori East Police spokesperson agrees with the locals, arguing that the involvement of children in labour is itself against the laws. However, he blames parents of being negligent on their own children.
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