Reconciliation at Kamwokya slum

Thursday saw Sam, Diana and me again drive to Kira Road police station to meet with Netono and Nathan (the same police officers who travelled with us to Kayunga on Wednesday). We also met up with the Divisional Police Commander (DPC) and the Assistant Divisional Police Commander (ADPC), both of whom we met previously on Monday.

To cut a long story short, Diana and I travelled with the DPC together with two members of the media, one television reporter from Ugandan Broadcasting Corporation (UBC) and one print media (The Daily Monitor).

Interestingly, Sam travelled with the police officers in a marked police 4WD. Together we made our way directly to the heart of Kamwokya, where about 150 residents had gathered for a Reconciliation Meeting with the police.

Invited guests (including the KCM ECS team) were asked to sit out the front of the crowd. The meeting began with the DPC introducing invited guests and explaining their respective roles. Following this he gave an update into the current investigation, including a special thank you to "Mark and members of the KCM ECS team for assisting in the capture and arrest of a primary suspect in Kayunga yesterday". He also spoke about the importance of giving the police time and space to complete their investigations and not taking the law into their own hands. Apparently 'mob justice' is a reality in many parts of Uganda - publicly flogging a suspect until they die. He also spoke briefly about the community taking greater responsibility for their children.

Each of the next four speakers were senior police officials and each reiterated the importance of allowing the police investigation to take its course (i.e. not taking the law into their own hands) and challenged the community to take greater responsibility for their children, especially if they're walking to such places as school.

Interestingly, the DPC asked Diana and me to say a few words about the work of KCM. While Diana focussed on the support provided to families, I spoke about the travesty of cutting a life short. I mentioned that Uganda is a beautiful country with beautiful people, that God has a plan for each and every one of them and that my prayer is that all the children standing in this gathering will grow up to be old men and old women and enjoy their old age - not having their lives robbed when they're a child. I said we must work together with the police and organisations such as KCM to end the terrible practice of child sacrifice. I wasn't expecting it, but I received cheers and applause when I spoke - perhaps because I was a Mzungu?

Interestingly I appeared on the UBC nightly news on Friday - I certainly wasn't expecting that!

After a few more speakers (including the local Chairman) the meeting was opened up for questions. There were probably 5 or 6 people who asked these. Each question was given a thoughtful response from one member of the guest panel.

The whole exercise was very positive as it seemed to me that members of the Kamwokya slum community were happy with the outcome and happy to trust the police.

To be honest, it was a little confronting to be driving with the DPC into a large gathering of people in an inner city slum with armed police surrounding us. It was very reassuring to know that we had the support of the local police and that the gathering was well behaved.

We drove back to the Jesus House just as the building team were returning from Kyampisi. They had stock-piled clay bricks in readiness for building the ground floor wall of the primary classroom next week.