Masaka woman jailed 35 years for feeding friend’s child with faeces, urine
Stella Namwanje appears in the dock at Masaka Chief Magistrates Court on November 7, 2024. PHOTO/GERTRUDE MUTYABA
What you need to know:
- The woman, who was convicted upon her plea of guilty, asked court to forgive her saying she “does not know what came over her.”
- The presiding chief magistrate said he preferred to hand her a deterrent sentence.
A chief magistrate’s court in central Uganda's Masaka City has convicted and subsequently sentenced a 34-year-old woman for feeding her neighbour’s 10-month-old baby with faeces and urine.
Prosecution led by George Kalinaki, told court that “on November 4, Stella Namwanje, a resident of Binyonyi A, Nyendo-Mukungwe Division in Masaka City was captured in a viral phone video showing her feeding her friend’s child with faeces.”
Kalinaki said that upon the video being received, her neighbors reported the matter to authorities which led to the arrest of the convict.
The State said the child was examined and found with a healing wound on his left eye, which indicated that the convict had tortured him in the process of feeding the baby on fecal matter.
According to Kalinaki, Namwanje was also examined and found HIV positive.
Namwanje, who was convicted upon her plea of guilty, asked court to forgive her saying she “does not know what came over her.”
“Your worship, I ask that you forgive me for my acts. I pray that you give me a sentence depending on what I did,” Namwanje pleaded.
But delivering his ruling, Masaka chief magistrate Aloysius Natwijuka described the character of the convict as “not fit for society.”
“The actions of the convict were grave and barbaric- and she does not deserve lenience. I agree with the state that there is need to protect young innocent children from people like the convict. There are so many people out there who do the same to the innocent children but go free,” Said Natwijuka.
Natwijuka held that the jail term would serve as a deterrent message to people like Namwanje targeting innocent souls.
However, Natwijuka observed that the convict was a remorseful first-time offender who did not waste court's time.
“I think she deserves a second chance when she serves her sentence. I will therefore sentence her to 35 years imprisonment,” ruled Natwijuka.
The victim’s mother, Olivia Mbabazi, who was not in court at the time of the ruling, told Monitor on phone that she was unhappy with the sentence.
“The offender needed to be given a death sentence,” she reacted on Thursday.
