Overview:
Despite several initiatives initiated for the street-connected youth in Gulu city over the past years that include rehabilitation and skilling programmes offered by non-governmental organizations, the number of youth on the streets keep growing.
A joint security team comprising the Uganda People’s Defence Forces and police has apprehended 17 suspected street gang members in a night raid aimed at restoring security within Gulu city. The arrests were conducted in the wee hours of Monday morning in various hot spot areas within the Laroo-Pece Division, where the suspected street gangs hide or have been waylaying individuals.
The impromptu operation comes just a day after an estimated 100 street gangs attacked traders along the Cemetery street in retaliation for the killing of one of their members by a chapati vendor. During that attack, two people were injured while property worth millions of shillings was lost after the gangs set several business premises ablaze.
Peter Banya, the Deputy Resident City Commissioner in charge of the Laroo-Pece Division, told Uganda Radio Network on Monday that the operation was meant to rid the streets of the gangs and restore normal night business operation. Banya said the 17 suspects arrested are being detained at Gulu Central Police Station pending screening and interrogation.
Banya made assurances that security personnel in the city will not leave chances for the street gangs to grow their influence that threatens the security of the city. Local leaders have, however, questioned the existence of the street gang,s mostly youth who have long been freely terrorizing residents within the city without their network being broken by security.
Morris Odong, the LCV Councilor for the Laroo-Pece Division, and also the Laroo-Pece City Division Councilor Elect, blamed security organs in the city for influencing the street gang’s behaviors by providing them incentives. Odong noted that it was so wrong for the security personnel to mobilize the street gangs under the pretext that they are ghetto youth, so that they are given money as an association.
Odong equally blamed the society in which the street gangs come from, arguing that parents or guardians of such individuals haven’t played a proper role in nurturing the children. He urged the community members to take up the responsibility of taking care of the street-connected children, a move he says will curb their presence on the streets.
Some leaders have, however, said people have started taking the law into their hands against the street gangs due to frustration with formal justice. Alex Okoya, the LCII Chairperson of Labourline Ward in which the weekend attack happened, said the majority of the community members have lost confidence in the justice system and have decided to handle the street gangs on their own.
Okoy compared the Sunday morning incidents in which a street gang was killed to four other similar incidents that happened between 2024 and 2025 where locals have lynched suspected street gangs to death. “This is a lack of confidence in the justice system, where people don’t believe that they can formally get justice. So people end up delivering justice by themselves,” said Okoya.
He noted that on many occasions, residents within the city apprehended the street gangs but were surprised to see them back in the community without reaching the court. According to the Aswa West River Region Police Spokesperson David Ongom Mudong, one suspect connected to the Sunday morning attack was apprehended and is in custody at Gulu Central Police Station. He was identified as Bismark Ayella, 19.
Despite several initiatives initiated for the street-connected youth in Gulu city over the past years that include rehabilitation and skilling programmes offered by non-governmental organizations, the number of youth on the streets keep growing.
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