More vigilance needed to fight child prostitution

A sex ring was burst last year when police arrested a man who was believed to be the ring leader. Now this suspect, Mustafa Munyawera, has been found guilty of running a prostitution ring among other crimes, and sentenced to 30 years’ imprisonment by a Gasabo District court.A harsh punishment you say? No. Munyawera is a very unscrupulous individual who has used money to entice young girls still in school, into prostitution. He had built up his “business” so well, he even had young girl-student accomplices who were his procurators in schools to fish up more victims. Everyone should condemn such criminal acts of exploitation and raise their voices against the perpetrators. One can imagine the sacrifices that parents make to send and maintain their children at school. It is a whole life’s journey of toil and sacrifice; so when such evil-minded characters emerge and tempt the young, easily impressionable minds with money and other gifts, it becomes painful beyond measure. This paper has featured several articles condemning child exploitation of all forms, and has just recently put the public on their guard against the ever-rising human trafficking phenomenon in the Eastern Africa region. From all accounts given by some of the witnesses against the evil-minded Munyawera, he was on the road to becoming a big regional dealer in human beings. One cannot even rule it out completely that he had not already started. Rwanda has a big population of defenceless and very vulnerable orphans owing to the 1994 Genocide, so this kind of business cannot fail to attract such scavengers. We have to be on our guard even more to defeat such forces of evil. This is but only one case that has come to light, so it is possible there are others who are still out there perfecting their criminal activities. Police and citizens together should up their partnership and fight this with zeal, as parents and media houses continue to counsel the youths about the dangers they face when they indulge in sex at a tender age. Loss of dignity and self esteem, getting pregnant and falling out of school, getting infected with sexually transmitted diseases, not least HIV/ Aids should be highlighted as some of the outcomes of such liaisons. Ends