Police question Mukono family over illegal adoption

Police question Mukono family over illegal adoption

By Ephraim Kasozi

Posted Tuesday, April 30 2013 at 01:00

Ephraim KasoziPolice have questioned parents and relatives of an eight-year-old boy who was allegedly adopted by a United States family in 2009 without following legal procedures.

The Police Anti-human Trafficking Taskforce, in partnership with Child Rights Advocacy Organisation and Kyampisi Childcare Ministries (KCM), stormed the family in Kiwumu village, Mukono District following reports that city lawyers duped the parents to give in their boy against their will.

Mr Moses Binoga, the coordinator of the taskforce, said they are considering a case of aggravated child trafficking because the case involves two children. “We are investigating the process in case of any fraud. We are also trying to verify if the children are still alive and action will be taken against those culpable,” Mr Binoga told journalists yesterday. He said the intervention was in response to claims by the parents whose son and another girl of their relative were adopted in June 2009 by the US family.

“It is suspected that the family is not literate and there were little or no chances of translation for them to enter into what they understood better,” Mr Binoga said. Pastor Peter Sewakiryanga, the executive director of KCM, attributed the problem to loopholes in the law on guardianship order.

Loopholes

“The existing law does not give a chance to the probation officer to monitor the welfare of the child after adoption. This is dangerous to our children because they are the future of our economy,” Pastor Sewakiryanga said.

He said KCM would work with the government to return the children in case an illegality is established on the side of the perpetrators of the adoption. Mr Binoga said the government has finalised strategies to monitor reception centres, orphanages and systems of private sponsorship to check the rampant cases of exploitation.

“These parents are both suspects and witnesses until we complete our inquiries but I can assure you that any person culpable will be charged in courts of law. We have had cases where children are adopted and exposed to acts of abuse including nudity, sexual exploitation, loss of body internal organs and witch craft and this should stop,” said Mr Binoga adding that government is in the process of amending the law on Guardianship order.

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