Uganda, Feb. 25 -- On Thursday, the Kampala Capital City Authority City Hall Court ordered that 100 mothers from the Karamoja sub-region be sent back home for rehabilitation and a month of community service following their conviction for violating the Children's Protection Ordinance, which makes sending children on the streets to beg illegal.

In passing the sentence, the magistrate alluded to the rampancy of the offence and the need to "enforce a deterrent" sentence.

This was the second time in as many years that women from the sub-region were convicted for violating the same law. This should be awakening us to the need to address what causes people from a region that is so rich in minerals, but whose people are ironically some of the p...