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I write with great concern regarding the continued unabated vice of people using vulnerable persons as baits for earning income. This concern is drawn from my personal experience and recent observations. Using an example of what happened this year around Easter season, I met a passenger around Colline Hotel stage in Mukono town, looking stranded, wearing ram shackled clothes, with two children aged between one and seven years.
This gentleman carried a placard which read that he lacked about five thousand shillings (5,000/=), to meet the transport fare to his destination, from Mukono town. He looked frail and indeed needed help, which I kindly offered through the taxi conductor.
Upon giving him Ten thousand shillings (10,000/=), the conductor gave me back change of 2,000/= after deducting my fare of 3,000 and 5,000 for the stranded gentleman, and his children. Many passengers were so grateful towards my act of kindness to this helpless man. Fast forward, three months down the road, I bump into the same gentleman in the city center, with the same children, wearing same clothes, with a placard reading a different message.
As I narrated this story to one of my sisters-In-Law, she also told me about a scenario which befell her while in the middle of town. She told us of a lady who walks with a child, whose toes have been cut off, that she randomly throws onto any reveler’s laps, and, she starts weeping until she is paid to carry away that child to her next victim. This conversation led me to recall the ploys I have personally seen being used by
different individuals like wheeling the lame, walking with the visibly sick and frail patients through markets and town centers, in the name of mobilizing support to take care of their medical bills. Some of these people who are used as baits walk with open wounds on different parts of their bodies, which are sometimes scary, especially to the young children, upon sight.
Whereas, I personally appreciate the efforts of those who try to assist these vulnerable groups to access something to eat and other basic needs, it is high time they changed the approach for achieving the same. It should not be done in a derogatory manner. Furthermore, I have begun to suspect that some of these helpers have found employment in assisting these vulnerable groups. However, they should recognize the fact that some of their actions are at the expense of the victims’ human rights and dignity.
By this letter, I therefore call upon those in authority especially the Ministry of Gender Labor and Social Development, Ministry of Health, Ministry of Internal Affairs, and, any other stakeholders to pick interest in this matter. Let there be more sensitization about this issue, and apprehension where need be.
Namisi Bruno Ignatius
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