NATIONAL DAY OF PRAYER TO COMBAT VIOLENCE AGAINST CHILDREN 28th August 2013 BAMANYISA

NATIONAL DAY OF PRAYER TO COMBAT VIOLENCE AGAINST CHILDREN 28^th August 2013 BAMANYISA

The speaker of parliament Rt. Hon. Rebecca Alitwala Kadaga has lamented the increasing cases of violence against children in Uganda particular and the world in general. In her remarks at the National day of prayers at Hotel Africana in Kampala today (Wednesday 28^th August 2013), Kadaga highlighted Child labor, Corporal punishment, and maiming of children as the various forms of violence against children in Uganda. She cited several examples when pupils have been injured seriously and others incapacitated as a result of corporal punishment by teachers at school and or by their parents in the homesteads.

The speaker amused the congregation when she said that some children have been beaten seriously for stealing a piece of meat or 100 shillings.

Madam Kadaga called for revival of African way of bringing up children which used to be a collective responsibility of communities. She further called on legislators to come up with more tough legislation to protect the children against other threats including exposure to pornography which is corrupting their morals. The National day of prayer was purely a children’s function who read the scriptures from the Bible and Quran and even the Master of Ceremony was a kid. The children from different parts of Uganda staged traditional folk songs. Speaking on the sideline, the archbishop of the Church of Uganda Stanley Ntagali urged the children to respect their parents and the parents to take care of their children’s needs physically and spiritually as the future leaders of the world.

 Meanwhile, the speaker of parliament says, a certain government minister stormed her office yesterday shortly after a private members bill to combat rampant corruption in Uganda was tabled in parliament. Madam kadaga says the Minister whom she didn't name had asked her to put it on hold and argued that government was also working on the same or a similar bill in which ill-gotten wealth of corrupt government officials will be confiscated and sold off to recover the stolen money.