Arua leaders reject juvenile remand home

By CLEMENT ALUMA and FELIX WAROM OKELLO

IN SUMMARY: The leaders say the remand home should be fully completed before it is handed over to them.

After lobbying for more than a decade to have a juvenile remand home built in Arua, district leaders have rejected the home that was supposed to be handed over to them on Thursday.

The leaders say the building is incomplete. Ministry of Gender Labour and Social Development constructed the home in Giligili on the outskirts of Arua Town. The rejection means the juvenile offenders will still be mixed with adults.

The District Vice Chairperson, Ms Sunday Ayikoru, said: “We are not ready to receive government programmes which are half-baked. What they (Ministry of Gender) want to hand over to us is different from the initial plan. As a district we are disappointed with this project.”

The remand home is meant for education and vocational programme, individual counselling and group work services, community service, recreational activities, guardian visit and medical care for the juvenile offenders.

This comes at a time when district leaders and police in West Nile region have been yearning for a remand home. At the start of the construction of the Shs975m project, the prisons authorities opposed the construction claiming that the land belongs to them. The issue was later resolved paving way for full construction.

The remand home has provisions for facilities like classrooms, playground and separate hostels for boys and girls.

Source: Sunday Monitor (23/09/2012): http://www.monitor.co.ug/News/National/Arua+leaders+reject+juvenile+remand+home/-/688334/1514648/-/2k7bxw/-/index.html