‘DNA test impact on mental health telling’

“I had just come out of a relationship with my childhood boyfriend whom my parents did not approve of,” a woman who has been married for 17 years told Monitor.

She asked us for anonymity to speak freely about her predicament that compelled her to—for nearly two decades—lead her husband into thinking her firstborn child was his.

“On my wedding day, I found out I was already pregnant and yet my future husband had not yet come in contact with me. I had visited my ex-boyfriend who lived within the neighbourhood a month before,” the woman, who entered an arranged marriage in the name of tightening the bond between two families, revealed.

When the baby, a boy, arrived a tad too early, there was relief that he was the spitting image of his mother.

“I gave birth earlier than expected but my family imagined that was entirely because it was my first pregnancy and in unison, it was welcomed with great joy,” the lady recalls her experience as a first-time mother.

Three other children later, there was nothing to indicate that the woman’s marriage would run into headwinds. The mother of four was determined to take her secret to the grave. But then, shortly after toasting to a 17th wedding anniversary, Uganda was caught up in a Deoxyribonucleic Acid (DNA) test craze.

“One evening, my husband returned home totally disturbed, he was in deep thoughts and grave silence. It was scary,” the mother of four told  Monitor, adding that her heart skipped a beat when she later discovered that her husband had taken DNA samples from all her children.

During the DNA testing craze, Mr Simon Mundeyi, the spokesperson at the Internal Affairs ministry, which is entrusted with running the rule over such tests, revealed that demand for such services soared by 70 percent. 

Mr Thomas Tayebwa, the Deputy Speaker of Parliament, used a plenary session to warn that “innocent children” risked being caught up in the crosshairs.

Issue
Indeed, in between a 17-year marriage hitting the rocks, thanks to a secret, is a teenage boy who—together with his mother—was banished from a place he once called home. But it is not just innocent children who are scarred for life. Male partners too are impacted.

Mr Onesmus Onyango, 35, nowadays grapples with manic and depressive episodes after discovering that he is not the biological father of three of the four children he raised. Mr Onyango told Monitor that he opted “to carry out paternity testing on all the children” because “my wife would on several occasions desert the home after serious disputes”.

Mr Onyango discovered that he was not the biological father of three boys at the time debt defaults were tightening the noose around his neck.

“The times were tough. I had accumulated big debts in order to finance my children’s education. In return, I was served with betrayal,” he confided.

Experts say DNA testing is linked to a number of possible triggers for psychological distress among victims. These include breakage of family structures; child rejection and neglect; domestic violence; depression; and eventually suicidal ideations.

“For women, they tend to lose self-esteem [thanks to] stigma in society [and] economic burden when left with the responsibility to fend for the children after spousal separation,” Ms Immaculate Agedo, an advocacy manager at Strong Minds-Uganda, told Saturday Monitor, adding that this leaves children destabilised and leads to unhealthy lifestyles such as early pregnancies and alcohol or substance abuse drugs.

Ms Agedo says, family counselling sessions should precede any attempt at paternity testing. In fact, Mr Seth Nimwesiga, a lawyer at the Centre for Health, Human Rights and Development (CEHURD) strongly believes the government should consider enacting a law governing paternity testing services.

“Parliament should come up with clear regulations on the scope of testing, accreditation and licensing of service providers as well as ethical guidelines to be followed,” he opines, adding that the laws tabled “should prescribe for issues of informed consent, data protection and privacy, child protection, and rules on pre- and post-test counselling to ensure individuals understand the potential emotional and psychological impact of the test results.”