Dear Mr President, step in and save the situation

Uganda is becoming one of the horrible countries to subsist in the entire world because of the widespread corruption, Injustice, Violence and Insecurity that has exposed many innocent young lives to end up in hutch of kidnappers.

The rate of kidnapping has grossly increased in Uganda with women being a soft target between the years 2017-2018.

From the murder of Muslim clerics, random shootings especially of notable figures, Various land evictions, poor health services accompanied by shortage of drugs, unemployment, Kidnappings and killings of innocent young people.

How much more shall Ugandans have to put up with before something is done?

While some few victims might have been rescued or released, many have been waylaid by the kidnappers despite the victims families meeting the huge sums of money paid in ransom.

I equate kidnapping to abduction either for ransom, Sacrifice or extenuative appeasement to win political capital.

Looking at the current statistics and and frequency, kidnapping has become a lucrative business that seems to be transforming those involved to become rich in the blink of an eye.

One can easily be swayed to believe that kidnaps in Uganda continue to aggravate due to high rates of corruption that could have eaten up our security forces as well, the high unemployment rates that has rendered many jobless which in turn makes them desperate to look for means of survival this can be evidenced in the cases of self kidnap.

It's quite important to note that youth in Uganda constitute a formidable force and if these were properly planned for Uganda would have been a better a place.

What is happening in Uganda is young people are often Isolated, sidelined and not involved the running of affairs within our government which is very detrimental and this can be seen from the current myriads of problems such as violence, poverty, Insecurities most of these caused by unemployment.

Another important factor to note here is the high rates of rural-urban migration.

Many young people in Uganda especially those who drop out of school move to urban areas especially Kampala, these just meander around and can easily be seduced with cash benefits and conscripted into gangs unleashing acts of terror on innocent Ugandans.

The speed at which this evil of kidnaps is growing in Uganda and the level at which lives of young people are being gruesomely taken is worrisome.

Can you just imagine the pain, psychological and emotional trauma that comes from sight of lifeless and mutilated bodies of innocent young women being littered in different parts of the country?

The current spite of kidnaps and killings intimidates both local and foreign investors and this comes with serious economic consequences.

The pestilence of kidnappings in Uganda has brought about fear in that no one irrespective of age, gender or political affiliation knows who will be the next victim.

Unemployment, poverty, political parochialism and laxity within our security agencies especially with in the investigation and intelligence gathering departments could areas where more emphasis should be put to help stabilise the situation that steadily seems to be getting out of hand.

These kidnappings and Killings should act as a reminder to Ugandans that we must always remain aware and alert.

We should teach each other that national security begins with us, each Ugandan has to take responsibility for what happens in his community, we need to start owning up for what security lapse happens with in our communities.

Do you realize that somehow someone could have seen something that could have been reported but instead held back and yet such information could have prevented a tragedy.

Ugandans have become more of a reactionary society. We have resorted to taking panic driven actions when faced with such insecurities. We have failed to collectively focus on preparedness and prevention.

As young people we call upon the President to support us as we embark on a long term project of teaching people how to be proactive about security in every area of their lives.

We plan to teach people how to recognise and sound proverbial alarms when something doesn't feel right.

Safety and Security of your family, your neighbourhood and your Country begins with you.

The author is a lawyer and activist