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17-year-old Kamuli sickler shoulders ‘heavy’ family burden
17-year-old Ramadhan Kato gestures during an interview with Monitor on June 8, 2024. PHOTO/SAM CALEB OPIO
What you need to know:
- Lillian Akoru hopes her son lives longer since he is "the breadwinner and handler of family crises."
Ramadhan Kato, 17, looks much younger than his age, but behind his innocence is the revelation that he heads a family of six, including his ailing mother and 13-year-old sister’s child.
The resident of Kakira Parish, Magogo Sub-county, Buzaaya County in Kamuli District in Eastern Uganda, is driven to this huge responsibility by a tunic (kanzu) that was given to him as heir to his father who was reportedly poisoned over land wrangles.
“This kanzu is my rosary against enemies and a reminder of the responsibilities that were given to me as heir. It gives me psychological comfort, strength, hope and courage,” he said when this publication visited the family on Saturday, adding that the kanzu was given to his father by his Muslim friend upon returning from Mecca.
The Primary Three dropout says he loves learning but would get an attack each time he went to school- even when his father was still alive.
He now says that education doesn’t bother him anymore as he is now fully engaged in family responsibility, which includes looking for food for family survival since they were left with half an acre of land.
“My father was poisoned to death over ancestral land. I believe Allah is on my side because sicklers barely live beyond their 17th birthday,” he observed.
His mother Lillian Akoru told Monitor that Kato is the breadwinner in addition to handling family crises.
“God should look into us and leave Kato for us because he has filled the father’s gap well despite his sickle cell status,” she said.
Lillian Akoru, mother of 17-year-old sickler Ramadhan Kato (R) poses for a photo with some of her family members in Kayunga District on June 8, 2024. PHOTO/SAM CALEB OPIO
Akoru adds that the current owner of the house in which they live asked her family to keep the home for him as he returned to Kampala for work, leaving them with some food to get them going.
Magogo Sub-county female councilor Petu Nairuba, who looks after Kato’s 13-year-old sister who was defiled and conceived, described him as “a blessing to the family”.
“Sick as he is, he has held that family together to the envy of most of us with husbands,” Nairuba said, adding that “the family faces eviction from the current place they are squatting and had nowhere to go until they were temporarily housed by a Good Samaritan.”
“We do a lot of counseling and last month, we put the mother on a suicide watch when Kato got a sickle cell attack and had to sell part of their land for treatment,” Nairuba added.
Julius Sekanzi, a neighbour, says he “admires the courage and determination Kato exudes while looking after his family through begging, doing odd jobs, and living off Good Samaritans.”
On his part, Kakira Parish councilor Livingstone Mukose decried fights and murders over land, noting that they have become rampant in Magogo Sub-county
“Kato’s father was poisoned and therefore, a victim of land conflicts, but all efforts by the family to get justice are being frustrated by poverty,” he claimed.
17-year-old Ramadhan Kato prepares a meal for his siblings in Kamuli District on June 8, 2024. PHOTO/SAM CALEB OPIO
Mukose appealed for humanitarian aid to the family so that they get their own home, further expressing fears that even the family’s burial site had been grabbed.
“I thank all those who have contributed in one way or another and call for more to have Kato settle, get some small land on which to grow his food, and get emotionally cured to live longer,” Mukose urged.
To reach out to the family, please contact the reporter, Mr Sam Caleb Opio at +256772681703/+256752681703
