Police in Mbale are holding a 15-year-old girl accused of child trafficking. The girl, whose names have been withheld because she is a minor, is a resident of Buteza, in Sironko district.
 
The suspect is accused of trying to traffic 12-year-old Rebecca Khainza and 13-year-old Babirye Mwajuma, to Kenya for child labor.
 
Marion Kutusa, Eastern Regional Police Child and Family Protection Officer, says that the accused lured the two children from Bunandalo primary school in Sironko on March 12, 2010.
 
She says that after luring the two children from their school with promises of jobs in Kenya, the suspect took them to a home in Kiteso Zone in Namatala ward, in Mbale Municipality for safe custody
 
Kutusa says that one of the children started roaming around the village as they were left without food until she got stranded. She says the child was found by area leaders who handed her over to the police.
 
Kutusa says that police is working with the suspect to find the other missing child who is also believed to be in Kiteso zone. In her statement to Police the suspect denies that she was planning to traffic the children to Kenya.
 
She claims that she was taking the children to their mother in Bududa district. Kutusa says that cases of child traffic are becoming common in districts in Eastern Uganda.
 
She says that Police has saved 16 children from being trafficked from the region to Kenya since the beginning of this year. Kutusa says that the children are taken to work as bar attendants, house maids or casual laborers on farms.
 
She says that police will consult the resident state attorney on how to proceed with the case against the suspect, because she is a minor.