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Napak, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | Moroto Chief Magistrate Court has remanded two people for alleged child trafficking in Napak district.
The suspects Beye Asuman, and Anna Sagal both residents of Toyep toto village in Iriiri Sub County, were arrested on Wednesday after a tip-off from concerned residents.
They were arrested while planning to transport four girls aged between 12 and 15 years old to Nairobi for casual labor.
Michael Longole, the Mt Moroto Regional Police Spokesperson said that they got a tip-off from the community members that the girls were being kept inside the house of Beye.
On Thursday, the suspects appeared before the Moroto Chief Magistrate Emmy Sayekwo to answer charges of child trafficking. They were later remanded to Moroto Prison until May 31st.
Longole applauded the community for the high level of vigilance they have exhibited and for reporting the perpetrators of child trafficking to the police.
John Aleper, an elder in Kangole trading centre, Napak district says that child trafficking is a major concern and its motives vary from forced labor and sexual exploitation for money.
Aleper said that many of their children have been trafficked to the commercial centers mainly Kampala and Nairobi in Kenya.
He noted that their efforts to stop the vice have been frustrated by the biting poverty and hunger that is forcing children to abandon their homes to look for survival somewhere else.
Denis Okori, the Napak Resident District Commissioner said that child trafficking is still rampant in the district despite efforts being put in place to fight the vice.
Okori said that about 300 children who were trafficked between the months of December 2022 and May 2023 have been integrated with their families. He however noted that the majority have returned to the streets of Kampala for survival.
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