Members, i thought the article below that recently appeared in the Sunday Monitor, an independent daily Newspaper in Uganda, was worth sharing for continued dialogue on the subject of Violence Against Women. Take a look.
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Just after sundown a few weeks ago in Luweero in Uganda, a grandmother, who is also widowed, had counted the day as having successful; she had sold her pig at a good price and the future did not look to dark. But then calamity struck.
As she prepared to retire for the night with her two granddaughters, a group of thugs armed with iron bars forced their way into her house. In panic, she accepted to give the thugs whatever they wanted.
“They first asked for the proceeds that she had got from the pig she sold,” Police records say.
When she handed over Shs30,000, the thugs were unimpressed. They demanded for more but with little success. It is suspected that this prompted them to commit a more serious crime: The crime of aggravated rape and defilement.
“The annoyed thugs tied the suspects with a rope, raped the 22-year old girl first then defiled the second girl who is aged 15,” says Lameck Kigozi, the Central Region Police spokesman.
Not satisfied, they pounced on the widow and raped her as well as they forced the granddaughters to look on, the Police say.
No one has been arrested for this crime. It is now part of the growing statistics that suggest that more than 3,000 girls and female children will have been raped by the end of this year.
Rape is a felony that fetches a death sentence upon conviction in Uganda.
While the Police say they are still compiling the countrywide crime statistics for this year and as such cannot immediately provide an accurate figure of rape incidents, the media has in the last two months reported several cases of rape, and this did not include rapes that were not reported to the Police.
This figure offers a window into the spike in sexual assault crimes, especially gang rape in and around urban areas, which could eclipse the already high incidence recorded over the last two years.
In 2007, 599 rape cases were reported to the Police. This figure tripled last year with the Police registering 1,536 cases.
Thus, at a rate of slightly over 2,000 rapes occurring in two years, This would suggest that about three females are raped each passing day in Uganda today.
So far, only 239 suspects have been arrested of whom just three were convicted by court. By December last year, 222 suspects were awaiting trial, according to official records.
A new dimension to this crime has emerged this year with gangs not only raping their victims but also strangling them to death. The Police say that their findings point to the fact that rape victims who were later murdered were most likely known to their attackers.
According to the Police Criminal Intelligence Unit’s analysis, most of the gang rape cases are being attributed to a surge in alcohol and narcotic drug abuse.
Police spokesperson Judith Nabakooba told Sunday Monitor this week that their analysis indicates that consumption of marijuana (bhang) and other related illegal drugs is now a major cause for concern in the urban areas where a population of thousands of unemployed, poorly educated and idle youth has grown over the years.
“We have had several cases where suspects tell us that after they consumed bhang and alcohol, they later didn’t know how they committed a rape crime,” Ms Nabakooba said.
She couldn’t, however, provide exact statistics saying a report to that effect is being compiled.
One such gang rape case that police are investigating occurred recently in Kanyanya, Kawempe Division of Kampala District in which a primary six pupil aged 14, was sexually assaulted by four males, two of whom have since been arrested and are currently detained at Kawempe Police Station. Investigations revealed that the pupil (name withheld) was going to school on September 14, when she was abducted by her attackers in broad daylight, abducted and later raped.
It was not until almost three weeks later on October 1 that the Police arrested Asuman Kibombo Kavuma, 17, an O’level student of Integrated High School and James Sewankambo, 21, a brick layer in connection with this crime. Two other suspects, whom police have identified as taxi conductors, are on the run.
Uganda Women’s Network Executive Director, Rita Aciro, concurs with Ms Nabakooba that abuse of illicit drugs has increased the rate of such crimes against women and called for stiffer penalties in the laws on drug abuse.
“Whenever people take these drugs and alcohol they lose their senses. That is why they commit such acts like rape. But the underlying factor is that people who feel powerless use drugs to get the power to do these crimes,” Ms Aciro said in an interview.
Ms Aciro says unless the Sexual Offences, Marriage and Divorce, and Domestic Relations bills are passed, violence against women will continue.
“There is an increase in impunity … which must be stopped,” she says. She however said the law isn’t an end itself but government must strengthen the Police’s capacity to combat this crime of violence against women.
Ms Prossy Nakanjako, the senior media progamme manager at Raising Voices, an NGO which is working to prevent violence against women, sees the need for a joint effort with both the Police and the community coming together if the increase in rape is to be curtailed.
“So many women live in danger and government should take action because the next day it can be your close relative. We need Police to do thorough investigations on these cases but unfortunately most of these cases don’t get the attention they deserve,” Ms Nakanjako says.
She says that community’s own vigilance is key since community members are familiar with known black-spots and usually have a fairly good idea who the suspects are.
Matters are, however, not helped by the fact that proving rape in court requires that the prosecution adduces incontrovertible evidence which will “leave the judge without any shadow of doubt” that the suspect(s) raped his victim.
A key piece of evidence is usually provided by a medical report which would should prove penetration and establish through DNA testing that semen found on the victim came from the suspect. Uganda does not, however, have adequate in-country capacity to carry out the usually expensive testing, which fact compromises the trying of rape cases.
Also, in cases of suspected rape, defilement or other sexual assault the victims are ideally supposed to report the matter shortly after the incident to facilitate the requirement that medical examination be conducted within 24 hours after the fact. Many times though victims are unable to afford fees for this medical examination that ranges between Shs20,000 and Shs30,000. (about 10 – 15 US Dollars equivalent)
Ms Nabakooba says that once the Police forensic laboratory currently under construction in Naguru, Kampala is complete, this problem will be eased. Presently, victims of rape, defilement and sexual assault can get free clinical forensic services from Mulago Hospital in a new arrangement to bring free justice to all, Ms Nabakooba says.
“Our doctors are now at Mulago in the rooms that the hospital authorities offered us. Victims have been suffering because they couldn’t get the money to pay the police surgeons,” Ms Nabakooba says.
Mulago Hospital authorities also confirmed that they are offering these services.
However the services mostly benefit people around Kampala who can easily access the hospital.
But even then, unverified claims suggest that some medical practitioners from hospitals reportedly demand for ‘facilitation’ when they are called upon to testify in court.
