June 6th my car broke down. June 7th I had it towed to Kampala five hours from home for repairs. June 10th I was told my car would be ready the next day, so June 11th I went to Kampala with friend and fellow missionary Nancy Cardoza. My car wouldn’t actually be ready until June 14th, but that gave me a chance to witness something I hadn’t before.
While Nancy drove us through the capital, sweet little children jumped on her car at every intersection, begging for a handout, crying about their hunger. My heart hurting as it does for such children, I reached for my pocket. Nancy stopped me. “Don’t you dare give her money! Those are trafficked children from Karamoja, and whatever you give them goes to their handlers, so if you give into them you support human trafficking.”
I was shocked, torn, furious, and heartbroken at every intersection after that. How could this go on? Police were sitting in the shade at many of these intersections where handlers oversaw their trafficked child slaves. It was appalling!
June 15th I woke up in the wee hours of the morning with the thought of a Karamoja round-up. Alone I could never Pied Piper or Liam Neeson those kids home, but I thought of a few recent news articles that showed me just who to bring the idea to.
The background is the Karamoja, the primitive tribe of cattle people in the northeast of Uganda, have been notoriously defiant of Ugandan authority and have been stealing cattle from their neighboring tribe, the Acholi. President Yoweri Museveni has tried all manner of talks to get them to stop and to submit to Ugandan authority but recent efforts have turned into threats of violent force.
June 12th the President sent hundreds of goats to the people of Karamoja, as an incentive project to keep cattle rustlers from reoffending (https://theinformerug.com/2022/06/13/president-museveni-donates-goats-to-karamojong-to-curtail-cattle-rustling/). The problem with that is the Karamoja are cattle people, not goat herders.
It occurred to me that a round-up of Karamoja’s stolen kids and a coordinated reunion would go a long way toward making peace with this outsider tribe of Ugandans. I have sown an idea toward President Museveni on Twitter in the past and soon saw him implement it, so I took a chance on doing it again. I am verbose, so the first draft was not Twitter-friendly. Here are both the draft and the published tweet:
Long version (not sent):
Most honorable President @KagutaMuseveni, I know that you value the lives of your fellow Ugandans. If I may say so, what the Karamoja need more than your generous gift of goats is their stolen children returned from the street corners of Kampala. A joint round-up initiative by your police, army, and social services could accomplish a reunion in mere weeks. The atrocity of human trafficking should be stopped where it can, most honorable one, and you have that power.
Edited for Twitter (sent):
Most honorable President @KagutaMuseveni, a joint round-up initiative by your police, army, and social services could reunite the stolen children of Karamoja on Kampala’s street corners with their families. You have the power to stop this human trafficking and bless the Karamoja.
I pray God gets this message to those who would follow up on it, that no offense is taken, that Karamoja’s children recover from the trauma of being stolen, and that there is peace in the north. My understanding is that many of these kids were promised good homes, food, and jobs, and were surrendered by their families who had no hope of supporting them.
It seems to me that if a nation wants the respect of a tribe, and expects them to obey the national laws, it could use its authority to stop the trafficking of that tribe’s children first. Pray this gets taken the right way and that God’s will is done here in Uganda as it is in Heaven.