| dc.description.abstract | The persistent increase in the number of street children has been a tragedy in all cities across the globe. Regardless of definition, the phenomenon of street children and their involvement in criminal activities is not new and neither is it restricted to certain geo-graphical areas. Africa has the highest urbanization rate with an average growth of 4.6 per cent and this doubles the growth of rural areas (Alexander, 1995). The problem of street children in criminal activities is not limited only to the developing countries. There are hundreds of thousands of children running away from home, living on the streets and involved in criminal activities in Europe, Canada, and USA.
In Uganda today, the number of street children involved in criminal activities is over 5000 and around 1000 in Kampala City. It is also argued that ill treatment by parents or guardians, disobedience and laziness, family disputes, and eviction from home have a bearing on the street children involvement in criminal activities (Lugalla and Mbwambo, 2004). This study was predominantly qualitative and thus it was undertaken using qualitative research design. The data was gathered from reports at the Ministry of Gender labour social development (GLSD), Uganda police Force (UPF), Kampala Capital city Authority (KCCA) and Hope for Justice Uganda. Empirical data shows that in general, any factor that causes young children to leave their homes and opts to live and work on Uganda’s Capital City – Kampala streets automatically puts them at risk of contact with criminals. The study further found out that such factors poverty; broken family links (including neglect, violence and problems associated with ‘reconstructed families’), urbanization, HIV / AIDS and natural disasters were the contributing Factors
The study found that there is a negative generalization and stereotyping of street children as criminal, which obscures the individuality of those boys and girls who live and work on the street and thus leads to inappropriate and often abusive blanket responses from the criminal justice system. Therefore, it was established in this study that criminalization, abuse of rights and dehumanization at both the collective and individual levels are inseparably linked to street children. This link was determined from reports gathered from Save the Street Children, a Civil Society Organization in Uganda (Save The Street Children, 2019). The study found out Challenges Affecting the Management of Street Children in Kampala these include the ever increasing number of children on the street as well as corruption and inadequate facilitation of the rehabilitation centers and homes established by government of Uganda and the Civil Society Organizations (CSOs), unmanageable numbers and Corrupt Police Officers.
It is recommended that Uganda police children family protection unit should play a greater role in ensuring that parents play their role in providing and ensuring the protection of children rights, that Local government districts should regulate and limit the movement of children from the rural to urban centers, that government through police should arrest those dealing in children trafficking and bring them to justice, the government rehabilitation centers should be well facilitated so that it is attractive for the children to stay until they are taken to their homes, that other scholars carryout deeper investigations why street children refuse to go back to their homes or return on streets after resettlement and rehabilitation. | en_US |
