By Julius Odeke

4^th July 2011:

Children march at Mbale celebrations. By Julius Odeke

MBALE – The Minister of Trade, Industry & Cooperatives Dr James Shinyabulo Mutende and NRM Local Council Five [LCV] Chairman for Mbale district Mr. Bernard Mujasi publicly clashed with each other during celebrations to mark the World Day Against Child Labour last Friday at Malukhu Boma grounds in Mbale-eastern Uganda, about 240kilometers from the capital city Kampala.

How the clash of the NRM titans started

In his speech, the Minister of Trade, Industry & Cooperatives Dr James Shinyabulo Mutende, who was guest honour, said at least 2.7million Ugandan children are engaged in what technically qualifies to be classified as child labourer.  “…At least two million and seven hundred children in the country are engaged in child labour, work that exposes them to hazardous challenges in their lives”, the Minister said.

The celebrations were also graced by other dignitaries from the ministry, local government officials, and representatives of many Non Government Organisations (NGOs) that cater for and offer rehabilitation services to the street kids in eastern Uganda.  The NGO community also forms part of Uganda’s development partners through which donor funds channelled.

Dr Mutende also said the government is fighting hard to ensure that children are not used as labourers in both the private and public sector.  “…Most of these employers who employ children as their source of workforce don’t want to hire adults who are skilled labourers for fear of paying decent salaries.  But this will stop with immediate effect”, Dr Mutende said.

He added that up to 93% of the youth who are in active employment earn less than two dollars a day.  This, the Minister said, is only to the advantage of the employers and yet it has caused unspeakable suffering to our nation.  He also said Uganda is one of the countries with the highest youth unemployment in the world.  “…You find that most of our university graduates are not absorbed in the labour market because most employers’ emphasis is in minimizing losses and maximizing their profits”, the Minister said.

Dr Mutende added that 73% of Uganda’s labour is not skilled because there was poor access to quality education in the previous regimes.  He however said that Museveni’s government has now introduced free Universal Primary and Secondary Education that is meant to ensure that every school going child is absorbed into school “…so that our labour force can compete in the world market with other countries”.

NRM LCV Chairman disagrees with Minister

The Local Council Five [LCV] Chairman for Mbale district Mr. Bernard Mujasi, the same NRM district Chairman who threatened to mobilise his people to join the April ‘walk-to-work’ protests however appeared to disagree with the Minister’s analysis when he said:

“…Its poverty that is killing most families in Uganda.  Our people are poor.  They cannot afford to send their children to school to acquire quality education.  They only end up getting quantity education that does not allow them to compete with other students who come from well to do families”, Mr. Mujasi said.

He appealed to the government to fight and eradicate poverty so that Ugandans can access better services.  That, he said, will allow the country to compete globally with other countries.  “…Otherwise most families will lag behind”, the controversial LCV boss warned.

Mr. Mustafa Fagayo, the Regional Coordinator of the Federation of Uganda Employers said, that “…while they are scaling up their efforts to tackle all forms of child labour in the country, employers still need to call for renewed and greater efforts to achieve the goal of ending the worst forms of child labour by 2016”.

He said the government can play a bigger role of creating massive awareness and ensuring that there is adequate political and popular commitment to make child labour a thing of the past.

“…We encourage employers in the informal economy to organize themselves into associations…and join hands to ensure that our children are protected as part of social responsibility”, Mr. Fagayo added.  END.  Please login to www.ugandacorrespondent.com every Monday to read our top stories and anytime mid-week for our news updates.