Activists protest one-year jail term for baby mutilator

Stella Namuwonge in dock before she was convicted. PHOTO BY MALIK FAHAD JJINGO

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They say the one-year imprisonment handed down to Namuwonge was not fair for a woman who committed an offence close to murder.

Masaka- Women and human rights activists have protested the one-year jail term given to a woman convicted of inserting razorblades into the private parts of her then three-weeks-old step daughter.

On Tuesday Masaka Chief Magistrate Mary Ikit found Stella Namuwonge, 34, a resident of Mukudde Zone in Nyendo-Ssenyange Division in Masaka District guilty of causing grievous harm to Ms Babirye Nakawungu.

However, the sentence has attracted angry reaction from local leaders, human rights defenders and women activists.

They say that the one-year imprisonment handed down to Ms Namuwonge was not fair for a woman who committed an offence close to murder.

Ms Shifah Kateregga, the executive director of Masaka Human Rights Defenders, said such a lenient sentence given to the convict is not deterrent.

Ms Kateregga said Namuwonge’s offence will not only affect the innocent girl’s social life in future but has also caused untold trauma to her mother, Ms Lydia Namaganda.

“Every mother needs to see her child grow through stages but imagine what the victim’s mother is going through to see her child at one year without doing anything like a normal child,” Ms Kateregga said.

“This is likely to cause more cases of ‘mob’ justice because security agencies and Judiciary are not helping to give justice,” she added.

Ms Kateregga also watered down the mitigating factors that the magistrate gave of the convict being ‘a bread winner of her two children’ saying even the baby she attacked “was also a child who wanted protection”.

Ms Aidah Nabunya, MIFUMI Communication Officer, told Daily Monitor in telephone interview that the sentence given to Namuwonge was not proportionate to “the harm and damage she caused to the defenceless minor”.

She said the convict was not remorseful, so she deserved a more stiff punishment “of about seven years”.

“We are ready to give her (victim’s mother) legal advice to pursue the case and seek justice for the baby by filing an appeal,” Ms Nabunya said. “The Judiciary should look into this case again,” she appealed.

Masaka District Community Development Officer, Ms Lillian Musisi, wondered how the magistrate, “a woman and a mother” handled the case in such a manner.
“The fact that she is a mother, she would have looked into that to give Namuwonge a more serious punishment,” Ms Musisi said.

She called upon women activists and human rights defenders to protest the judgment “because it was not fair at all compared to the damage caused to the baby girl”.

She, however, blamed police for slapping “a simple charge of grievous harm” to Namuwonge “yet she committed a big offence that is close to murder”.

However, the Southern Region Police spokesperson, Mr Noah Sserunjoji, defended police, saying police always seeks legal advice from state prosecutors before going ahead with any case.

“Police should not be blamed because we did our job and we took the suspect to court. It’s upon court to decide sentences to give to convicts,” he added.