Police in Rukungiri has this morning rounded up a group of 19 individuals who claimed they were conducting research in the district but whose motives were not clear
Police was reportedly tipped off that the group was recruiting children for a school in Naalya Kampala yet they claimed be carrying out research on Elephantiasis
The group which was travelling in 3 vehicles had reportedly spent a week in Rukungiri and had reportedly been sighted in Bugangari and other parts of the district.
Trouble for the group started when one of their members who identified himself as Emmanual Katungye approached a parent to recruit a child for an unnamed school in Naalya Kampala.
Katungye claimed to be attached to IFOTRODE, a research organisation that is mapping the geographical distribution of Podoconiosis in Uganda
Podoconiosis is a form of elephantiasis arising in barefoot subsistence farmers who are in long-term contact with irritant red clay soil of volcanic origins.
The parent tipped off police when he suspected that they could be part of groups recruiting school children for homosexual activities.
The group was rounded off from one of the Hotels in Rukungiri town and taken to Rukungiri CPS for questioning
