Prime
Thousands of suspects in Bugisu escape to Kenya to evade arrest
Ms Robina Kharunda, a victim of gender violence during a press conference with human right activists in Mbale City last week. Ms Kharunda takes care of her family after her husband abandoned her. PHOTO | PHOEBE MASONGOLE
What you need to know:
- The situation has caused untold suffering in some of the families as children are abandoned and partners of the suspects burdened by responsibilities.
Authorities in the border districts of Bugisu Sub-region are stuck with thousands of unsolved gender-based violence (GBV) cases after the accused persons fled to Kenya.
Daily Monitor investigations indicate that the suspects, some of whom had been arrested and then granted bail, eventually got employment in Kenyan counties bordering Uganda.
The families of the suspects are also struggling to get basic necessities since the breadwinners fled.
Ms Jane Nabukwasi, a court clerk in charge of the Family Division at Mbale High Court, said many men run away from their families to escape justice.
“We have about 3,000 gender-based violence cases from the past three years, and I attribute the cases to miscommunication between couples and idleness during lockdown,” Ms Nabukwasi said.
“Most of the perpetrators have taken off, and their files are pending resolution. We have filed arrest warrants but we have failed to have them back,” she added.
Visits to some of the suspects’ homes reveals the magnitude of the problem.
For instance at the home of Mr Julius Wetungu in Bunaganda cell, Namisindwa District, his children have been forced to fend for themselves.
Suspects’ families speak out
The whereabouts of Mr Wetungu, who is accused of killing his brother’s wife in 2009, remain a mystery.
His troubles were sparked off by a wrangle over a land issue with one of his brothers, which eventually involved their wives.
The wrangle escalated into a fight, in which Mr Wetungu allegedly hit his brother’s wife with a machete on the forehead, killing her.
He fled and is suspected to be hiding in Kenya.
Mr Wetungu’s family members lived in fear and under pressure from relatives and the police, who summoned them several times to reveal the whereabouts of their father.
“Unfortunately, we didn’t know where to start from because we were not aware of his whereabouts,” Ms Fangiline Namutosi, a relative, said.
She added: “We tried to inquire from our distant relatives but we were told he was nowhere to be seen.”
His wife reportedly fled due to the burden of raising the family single-handedly.
“We were left alone because it was hard for our mother to provide food and other needs since she lacked money and was jobless. This forced her to run away and remarried somewhere we don’t know,” Joseph Wetungu, one of the suspect’s children, said.
He added: “We left school because we did not have fees and scholastic materials, so my elder siblings decided to go to Kenya to look for survival so that they can help us.”
In another incident, Ms Janet Nabulo, the wife of Mr Stanley Nakiyi, said her husband’s disappearance has affected her family. “My husband’s brothers have been pushing me to go away because they think I chased away their brother since he had failed to provide for us but I cannot go because I don’t want my children to suffer,” the mother of three said.
For Ms Edisa Amet, a resident of Malaba North Cell in Malaba Town Council, said her husband, Mr Robert Byamugisha, abandoned her and their two children 10 years ago when he travelled to Kenya to seek odd jobs.
“It is a tough time for me but since then, I have tried to survive. He has never resurfaced, leaving me with the responsibility of bringing up the children,” Ms Amet, who hawks ice cream to earn a living, said.
Likewise, Ms Veronica Akware, 80, a widow and a resident of Amoni cell Malaba Town Council, takes care of five grandchildren after her daughter left to work in Nairobi.
Ms Akware said she took over the responsibility after her son-in-law fled to Kenya to evade arrest after allegedly raping a neighbour’s daughter.
Cases of people committing crimes ranging from murder, sex-related to robbery and escaping to Kenya are said to have increased in the border districts during the Covid-19 pandemic.
The Kenya-Uganda border stretches for 772 kilometres, with five crossing points. Of these, three are in small towns that provide access mainly for residents crossing the border for work.
However, there are about 40 other porous border points, many unmanned by security personnel.
Majority of the porous borders are in Lwakhakha Town Council, Bukiabi, Bumbo, Bukokho, Namboko, Namitsa, and Bupoto sub-counties.
Mr John Emoit, the chairperson of Amoni ‘B’ cell Village in Asinge ward, Malaba Town Council, said there are many porous border points on the River Malaba belt.
However, Assistant Superintendent of Police John Robert Tukei, the Bukedi South police regional spokesperson, said police are frustrated by the porous borders.
He said there are more than 100 illegal routes between Busia and Tororo border points.
Mr Tukei added that suspects who use gazetted borders such as Malaba and Busia, have been intercepted and returned.
Mr Peter Etomet, the chairperson of Manakor in Amongura parish, Buteba Sub-county, Busia District, said they are engaging their Kenyan counterparts to arrest the suspects, mainly the youth.
“We try to engage with our counterparts, but we rarely get them since it is very hard to trace them,” he said.
Ms Immaculate Owomugisha, a director for the advocacy and strategic litigation department at UGANET, a social justice advocacy organisation with offices in Tororo, said the loophole is failing their efforts to ensure communities are free from violence.
“We have seen a rise in the number of cases of violence, and according to the police crime report, the highest number of cases are of gender-based violence and sexual violence. This means families are living in terrible state,” Ms Owomugisha said. She added: “We have had many women and girls seeking safety and legal support and skills, especially during Covid pandemic. This is worrying to both the government and citizens.”
Mr Reagan Wanyama, the executive director at Elite Youth Uganda, said they have given support to more than 3,000 families, including vulnerable children in the communities.
However, Mr Wanyama said the organisation does not have the capacity to provide shelter and other safety nets to the victims, yet the government is not doing enough either.
Help for vulnerable families
Ms Sarah Kalende, the Mbale City probation officer, said the government has introduced programmes to help the vulnerable families.
The Tororo chairperson, Mr John Okeya, said his office has a backlog of the cases from families tracing for their runaway relatives.
“We have forwarded the complaints to the Kenyan authorities but unfortunately, they also claim that it is not easy to trace them,” he said.
Kenyan authorities mainly at the border say it is difficult for them to identify suspects because most of them do not use gazetted routes while others cross to the country under the guise of visiting their relatives.
Mr William Chebet, a police officer at Lwakhaha border, said the Kenyan government passed a law prohibiting children of school-going age from staying at home.
“This is why most Kenyans have preferred to recruit adults, especially from Uganda to keep their homes to avoid being penalised,” the source said.
Mr Chebet said they have an arrangement between Uganda and Kenya on how to handle people who commit crime in either country and escape to another.
Police crime report
According to the police crime report of 2020, a total of 14,230 victims were defiled in 2020. The report further shows that 14,080 of the victims were female, 140 were male juveniles and 10 female adults. The report also ranks Elgon region fourth in defilement cases, after Albertine, greater Masaka and East Kyoga regions. It also indicates 825 and 71 cases of defilement and rape were respectively reported in Bugisu Sub-region.
The reporting for this story was supported by the International Women Media Foundation’s Gender Justice Reporting Initiative.
