The Deputy Speaker of Parliament Jacob Oulanyah has challenged parents to do a better job on parenting saying it is the absence of this that has partly resulted into criminal activity in the country.
Oulanyah was Wednesday speaking in Gulu district at the burial of Christine Anyeko, daughter of Bishop Onono Onweng who was killed by an unknown assailant.
He said during the burial ceremony that parents and communities have a responsibility to ensure they raise children who respect human life.
“Before we even start to look to RDCs and DISOs, what are we doing in our households and communities to ensure that we raise children who respect lives? It saddens me that young people are the ones killing nowadays”, the Deputy Speaker said.
He attributed the rise of heinous crimes such as murder in villages to poor parenting.
“A child when born is like a plain white piece of paper… the parents are the first to write on him/her, then the teachers and communities. For a child to hold a knife and butcher another human being… what writings were put on this child?”, Oulanyah wondered.
He urged the communities and stakeholders to strengthen vigilance starting from their neighbors but above all to form what he called “a circle of friends”.
This, he says, will ensure that people watch over one another because they are all benefiting from it.
The Deputy Speaker also spoke to the need for community and neighborhood watch which he said has declined.
At the same event, the Leader of Opposition in Parliament, Betty Aol Ochan had the leadership of Gulu district to blame for crimes such as the murder of Christine Anyeko. She said there was laxity and called on security agencies to revive security sweeps aimed at exterminating wrong doers.
Lyandro komakech, the MP for Gulu municipality in agreement with the LOP blamed the rise in crime in gulu on the security leaders.
He wondered how young people roaming the streets of Gulu selling marijuana with no reserve are not arrested yet security looks on.
Anyeko was ambushed on her way home on December 31 2018 by an unknown assailant who demanded money. When she told the assailant she had no money on her, the killer slit her throat five times with a knife.
She was taken to hospital but later succumbed to death from the wounds of the attack.
Mourners from all walks of life attended the funeral and among which was Major General Otema Awany, Bishop Odukami from Lango Lango Bishop Kitara of Kitgum, relatives, friends and inlaws.