Police in Kampala has rescued over 200 women and girls from being trafficked by a company, which was reportedly taking them to do domestic jobs abroad.
The women aged between 18 and 30 years were being housed in 3 separate tiny rooms in one vicinity at Lusaze Rubaga in Kampala.
The women have been under the supervision of one Ssekayibwa Emmanuel the director of the company called strepper international limited.
The girls were squeezed into groups of 60 to 70 per room and packed like sardines with as many 3 to 4 girls sharing 1 thin mattress.
The tiny rooms looked unkempt with old tattered bedsheets scattered over 4 by 5-inch mattresses, the windows had dozens of dirty plastic cups and clothes would be seen littered all over the place.
The walls were old and peeling off the paint and there was hardly any space for one to move freely, neatly keep their luggage or even turn comfortably while asleep.
Police cops arrived at the scene by 7 am following a tipoff from the local council authorities in the area.
Luke Owoyesigirye the deputy Kampala metropolitan mouthpiece says they have already arrested Ssekayibwa, one of the directors and two others identified as Temanda Faisal and Tinyefunza are still at large.
He said ”We found 222 girls one had 60 and the other 57, much as we have established that the company is licenced to give people jobs abroad, we don’t support the way they were housing these girls. what surprised us is that some girls had been here for 3 months, others 2 days,2 weeks,we don’t know where they were being taken or how much was being removed from them”
Omulangira Kiyimba chairman LC 1 Lusaze says they have been housing these women for close to 8 months under the same promise of work abroad.
Kiyimba says:’‘they told me this house keeps girls who are supposed to go abroad, I was also never allowed to enter inside the house because only girls stay there and I was fine with it.I would only enter the gate but not inside and am fine with it but the man housing these girls was keeping them like pigs, and we condemn it.how do you let 3 or 4 girls sleeping on one bed ?”
When police arrived at the scene, the girls resisted arrest saying they willingly accepted to travel abroad.
The women immediately started yelling at the police cops sent to arrest them.
They explained that by the time they were offered the uncomfortable accommodation, they accepted because they knew flights to do domestic work was being organized.
The bitter women spoke randomly: ”We have been here in Uganda, there was corona, nothing has been done to help us get jobs, or give us food, Emma has been taking good care of us and we had a flight abroad today, let them leave us,we spent the night here,what have we done wrong ,why are they parading us as if we are thieves.”
”We heard someone knocking at the door very early in the morning, and asked who is this, they replied, Hajjat open the door, I saw a car, and thought it was the boss, police arrested us and confiscated our phones and told us to stay in one place, no moving, even to urinate, do it where you are”
By the time of filing this story, police had kept the women in custody pending investigations.
Compiled by Minah Nalule
