Magistrate halts session to fundraise for defiled toddler

Kayunga Grade One Magistrate Faridah Ikimaana on September 16 halted court proceedings in a defilement case of a two-year-old and started a fundraising campaign to raise the medical fees.

This was after the victim of the aggravated defilement (name withheld) had started passing stool from her private parts.

The call was made after the suspect, Mr Kassim Katende,18, a resident of Buyobe Village in Kayunga Sub-county, Kayunga District, was charged with aggravated defilement.

As the charges were being read to Katende, the fully-packed court room was thrown into sorrow amid anguish with attendees, mostly witnesses, relatives of accused persons, prison warders, and prisoners shaking their heads in disbelief. 

“You are accused of defiling a two-year-old girl in August this year but this court cannot hear your case because it is of a capital nature, you will be taken to the High Court when investigations in the case are complete,” Ms Ikimaana told Mr Katende.

The magistrate moments later halted the court proceedings and started a fundraising drive.

“I am still attending to cases here in court but go and ask my aide to give you money so that this mother can pay for the treatment of her baby,” Magistrate Ikimaana told one of the court workers.

Some concerned court users started to voluntarily contribute money, which was handed over to the victim’s mother. The mother, a peasant who separated with the father of the victim, knelt in court as she thanked the magistrate and other people for their contribution. It was reported later that she needs Shs8m for the surgery.

“I thank you for being with a good heart, I am helpless…my baby requires money for treatment,” the victim’s mother said before exiting the courtroom.

The 24-year-old mother of three was with the victim in court but the magistrate asked her not to bring her to court again. The victim is her second born.

The victim’s mother later told this publication that the accused, who is her relative, defiled the baby whom he found at her grandmother’s home.

“In July I took my child to my mother’s home in Buyobe Village after I got married to another man. But on the fateful day, I had gone to visit my mother when I found the accused red-handed defiling my daughter in the house,” she explained, adding that she made an alarm prompting the accused to run away leaving the 2-year-old bleeding profusely.

She later reported to the village leaders, who took the victim to Kayunga Central Police Station leading to the hunt and arrest of the accused.

The mother said doctors say the victim’s uterus was damaged and will be removed.

“I don’t have money to buy the drugs prescribed by doctors,” she cried out. 

The accused, who dropped out in Senior One, is an uncle of the victim.

The magistrate adjourned the case to October 7 when the accused will be brought back to court for mention of the case.

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