Kampala — Churches, agencies, brothels and bar owners have been implicated in human trafficking in Uganda. Rogers Kasirye, the executive director of the Uganda Youth Development Link (UYDEL), yesterday told MPs that most girls from the age of 14 and above ended up in brothels, bars, hotels or as housemaids.

He was testifying before the parliamentary committee on defence and internal affairs, which is scrutinising the Prevention of Trafficking in Persons Bill 2007.

He accused Church owners of having several branches in rural areas from where they convince unsuspecting parents to surrender their children at a mere sh10,000. He said poverty in rural areas had left many children helpless.

He singled out Hossana agency in Wandegeya, saying it hired out housemaids at a fee "as if they are selling off goats".

He said some newspapers ran advertisements of agencies claiming to have housemaids, adding that such agencies get children from villages promising them lucrative businesses in the city.

He said at Karaoke performances in bars, girls strip naked as they mime and the interested patrons pick those to sleep with after paying their employers.

"It is a pity that even responsible people engage in such inhuman business," Kasirye said.

Kasirye has over 400 children, most of them former street kids, at his Masooli Centre on Gayaza road.

He said there was also rural to rural trafficking of boys to work in flower farms, sugar plantations and rice fields.

Another group engages in selling boiled eggs, roast nuts and nail polishing in the city, he added.

Kasirye said there was a woman in Makindye who engages over 15 young girls in prostitution. He said the current law on prostitution was weak and appealed to MPs to immediately pass the Bill.