Officials of the Ministry of Gender, Labour and Social Development appeared before the Parliamentary Committee on Public Accounts over the failure to put in place guidelines regulating the legal guardianship which is used to illegally export children.
Members of Parliament on the committee chaired by Serere district woman MP Alice Alaso put to task the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Gender Pius Bigirimana, the Commissioner in charge of Youth and Children Development, James Kaboggoza Ssembatya, and the Principle Probation and Welfare Officer, Jane Stella Ogwang, for looking on while the child traffickers are using some law firms to submit applications to court to allow legal guardianship for child inter country adoption.
MPs who included Alice Alaso, Jesca Ababiku, Nakato Kyabangi, Paul Mwiru and Eddy Kwizera forced the team from the Ministry of Gender to reveal that the law firm of the former Attorney General Peter Nyombi is involved in aiding child traffickers in the country.
They noted that Nyombi and company Advocates make application in family courts using the advantage of weak laws and help child traffickers to export children who sometimes have their body parts removed and/ or have bad habits instilled in them like homosexuality and then returned in the country hence bringing bad morals.
The Members of Parliament directed the officials of the Ministry of Gender to avail to the committee a list of all legal firms which aid child adoption outside the country. They ordered the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Gender to produce to the committee guidelines relating to child adoption in one month so that the issues surrounding child adoption and trafficking are resolved. The committee blamed the authority in the Ministry of Gender for failing to have guidelines for 20 years which clearly stipulate how children are taken for the purpose of inter continent adoption.
The committee also ordered the close of all unlicensed child homes and to have children transferred to licensed orphanage homes. MPs noted that in Uganda there are 50 licensed child homes and more than 50 unlicensed child homes according to the Ministry officials. The permanent secretary in the ministry of Gender agreed with MPs’ decisions and promised to comply by the set time.
