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Sexual offences driving Busoga girls out of school
The First Deputy Prime Minister, Ms Rebecca Kadaga, dances with pupils and teachers of Kasanbura Preparatory School in Kamuli District recently. PHOTO | SAM CALEB OPIO
What you need to know:
- Stakeholders call for concerted efforts in the fight against teenage pregnancies, violence and exploitation.
Fatuma was lured into sex at the age of 15 after a man – old enough to be her father – promised her sanitary pads.
She dropped out of school this year after conceiving.
The underprivileged girl, who is five months pregnant, had been a Senior Two student at African Senior Secondary School in Jinja City.
“I will first give birth and go back to school,” the girl, who looked worn out, told our reporter last Thursday.
Today, the teenage girl, who has just turned 16, is among dozens of pregnant children who are visiting Bugembe Health Centre IV, Jinja City, for antenatal care.
On May 4, seven pregnant girls including Fatuma received free mama kits from the government health facility.
Fatuma’s mother said she knows the person who abused her daughter but could not report the matter to police because she did not have the money to bribe the police to aid the suspect’s arrest.
“I fear to report the case because the police will ask for kitu kidogo, (money), which I don’t have since I am a widow and a peasant farmer,” she said.
The prevalence of child marriage and teenage pregnancy is relatively high in Jinja, just like other districts in Busoga Sub-region.
Driving factors
Limited information around sexual reproductive health and menstrual hygiene management for the girls, poor parenting, and poverty makes some parents look at defilement as a financial break-through; ignorance, gender insensitivity and dangerous cultural norms, among others, are being blamed for the increasing cases of sexual offences in Busoga.
Another contributing factor is that some parents cannot discuss sexuality with their children.
Ms Lydia Namasoga, the community development officer (CDO) of Bugulumbya Sub-county in Kamuli District, said the area is faced with a high rate of child labour because of the sugarcane industry. As a result, the industry is promoting early marriages and defilement.
“Through the para-social workers, the community activists, we are able to identify those cases and to manage them as per the law of this country. Every month, we register on average five cases of defilement,” she said.
Ms Namasoga said the abject poverty being experienced in the eastern part of Uganda is eating up children’s future.
“All schools in the area have registered a significant decrease in enrollment because the boys are busy cutting sugarcane and are looking for money. And since the Covid-19 outbreak in the country, the girls are less interested in education,” she said.
Community leaders, non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and law enforcers said Busoga Sub-region is losing the battle against sexual offences because of certain cultural beliefs.
“People believe that you should not talk about it. Sex is normal. So, when you go and arrest someone, people look at you as someone who is not being African enough,” Ms Namasoga said.
The in charge of the Child and Family Protection Unit (CPFU) at Bugembe Police Station, Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP) Kulthum Nakyesa, said defilement and child marriage are among the challenging sexual offences that the state and non-state actors are battling in the entire Busoga Sub-region.
“It originates in the communities, in the homes where they (children) come from, to the extent of finding fathers also sleeping on their daughters. It is too much,” she said.
She noted that cases of defilement are reported to the police when the victim is already pregnant.
“For them, they don’t know that a mere touching the private part of a child who is below the age of 18 years and tempering with her is an offence,” ASP Nakyesa said.
ASP Michael Kasadha, the Busoga North Regional Police spokesperson, said the biggest number of sexual offences registered is the issue to do with defilement, adding that on average two cases of defilement are recorded at Kamuli Central Police Station.
“If we are looking at our statistical data of last year, we had 206 cases of dewfilement,” he told Daily Monitor last Wednesday.
Defilement cases are between 70 percent and 80 percent of the sexual offences we record in the entire Busoga North region, Mr Kasadha said.
Analysis of the data collected from Kamuli and Jinja districts, however, show a girl is defiled every day in the region since many cases go unreported.
“Much as we are saying we have this report, we still have a long way to go because when we tried comparing with the statistical data from the health sector, we discovered that there were more child mothers reporting to health centres than the ones we have as those who were defiled. And the child’s mother, of course, is a victim of defilement,” Mr Kasadha said.
Adding: “So, when we compared, we discovered that we don’t have a quarter of the numbers of child mothers that were registered at the health units. So, we still have a long way to go. Therefore, members of the public should take sexual offences as serious crimes committed against children.”
Challenges
The police spokesperson further said another challenge affecting the fight against defilement is that parents connive with defilers to ‘kill’ cases.
“Some parents when somebody defiles their daughter, they see that as a financial breakthrough. Therefore, they would call the perpetrator, sometimes with leaders and sit on a roundtable to negotiate. And as we struggle to investigate the issue, their interest is in money,” Mr Kasadha said.
He added: “So, they will run to police not because they want justice but because they think when they get to police, the perpetrator will rush to pay the money.”
NGOs say going forward, there is a need for a law against sexual offences.
Legal debate
The Sexual Offences Bill, 2021 was passed in Parliament but was not assented to by the President. The President returned it to Parliament. The term of the tenth Parliament ended before the Bill was passed or returned to the President for his assent.
Ms Tukwasibwe said not all is lost. “So, as Joy for Children Uganda, we are closely working with Members of Parliament, especially the Uganda Parliamentary Forum for Children to have this Bill re-tabled in Parliament and have it passed,” she said.
ASP Nakyesa acknowledged the existence of gaps in the fight against sexual offences.
“While handling children, we feel like there is no confidentiality. Like you’re seeing here, even the room where we are seated is open. There is no confidentiality, everybody is hearing, everybody can easily come and find you talking to the person and you know kids, a very small thing when it comes in to interfere she can forget whatever she was telling you,” the police officer explained.
“So, you find a hard situation in handling these issues. And you remember when you are handling somebody and that person tells you there is no confidentiality, you also feel guilty because you know it is one of the principles,” she added.
Logistical issues
ASP Nakyesa said her department does not have computers and a motorcycle to transport them to the scenes of crime.
“There is no computer where you can store your information for data management. No cameras. You know in such cases, we need most of the time to take photos at the time of the offence. Maybe you find the child bleeding, maybe you find even blood on the ground, and maybe you find those dirty clothes. Much as we pick them, we also have to take photos because by the time the case comes for hearing, maybe the victim is now walking properly,” she said.
She added: “And when you tender those photos, the magistrate will know what this person went through before passing the sentence, and maybe we can get some good punishment for this person – to let others also know that it is not a good act.”
Mr Eria Kironde, the executive director of Aids Education Group for Youth (AEGY), said: “We have trained local leaders on how to deal with cases of defilement. How do they report, what should they handle, and what they should not handle because over time we have realised that maybe you end up seeing community leaders also sitting to adjudicate over cases of defilement yet by law they are not supposed to.”
Mr Charles Mudhumba, the executive director of Holistic Initiative to Community Development (HOLD)- Uganda, said: “We have implemented a number of approaches which involve organising parents into parenting groups and then deploying them to go and train fellow parents into positive parenting, especially for the girls.”
sexual offences bill
On May 3, 2021, Parliament passed the Sexual Offences Bill 2019.
The Bill criminalised sexual exploitation of women including giving individuals the right to withdraw consent from a sxual act.
The Bill also banned incest, rape, aggravated rape, administering of substance with the intent of committing a sexual act, sexual assault, indecent communication, sexual harassment, detention with sexual intent and sexual acts with persons in custody.
Sections 13 to 20 prohibit defilement, agggravated defilement, sexual offences by children, dissemination of sexual content and materials to children, child prostitution, child marriage, child sex, among other offences.
However, on August 3, 2021, President Museveni returned the Sexual Offences Bill, 2021 to Parliament for reconsideration because some clauses were already provided for in the Penal Code Act, 15, particularly on the offences against morality.
Compiled by Bill Oketch, Sam Caleb Opio and Denis Edema
