Double agony as 14-year-old girl is defiled by uncle and father

Kampala.

Most people have fond childhood memories about their fathers and uncles but Muhammed Juuko’s 14-year-old daughter has a totally different mental image.

She only recalls horrific incidents of frequent sexual abuses by the very people that would have been her protectors. The defiled girl’s name has been withheld because she is a minor and a victim of defilement.

It all began in 2012 in Bakuli zone, Rubaga Division, a Kampala suburb. One Robert came from Masaka District looking for a job in the city. He sought refuge at his brother’s (Juuko) one-roomed dwelling with hope of finding a job in the city.

Indeed Juuko secured a job for his brother. The duo were to work as night watchmen at a nearby Namirembe Infant Primary School. They would work in shifts.

As one left for work, the other stayed home to take care of the 14-year-old girl who was in Primary Six at the same school where her father and uncle worked.

However, in the wee hours of March 2013, hell struck. Juuko was still on his night guard duties when his brother Robert left his bed and sneaked into his niece’s bed. The girl was deep asleep. Like a demon-possessed beast, he pounced on her and started fondling her.

The 14-year-old pupil tried to fight back by pushing away his stout uncle but her weak body could not sustain the resistance. She was overpowered and the uncle defiled her.

Realising the consequences of his crime, Robert fled the home before his brother’s return from his night shift in the morning. The defiled girl had failed to get sleep again and kept turning on her bed with hallucinations.

She later gathered courage, dressed up and went to the verandah. She sat for some hours as she waited for her dad to tell him the bad news about his brother’s devilish acts.

When the father finally returned, the 14-year-old narrated her ordeal to him. She anticipated her father would report the incident to police to arrest the errant uncle and expose him to the full force of the law.

To her surprise and disappointment, her father’s response was as devilish as the uncle’s conduct.

“…It appears you are of age now. Since you have had sexual intercourse with your uncle, you will do the same with me,” the father told the girl.

Since he wanted to continue the crime initiated by his brother, Juuko did not report his brother to police for defilement.

Initially, the daughter took her father’s comments as mere jokes. She could not believe that her biological father could demand to have sex with her. However, when night fell, she was confronted by the hard reality.

Her father followed up his earlier vows and shared the bed with him. He too defiled her in succession and from then onwards, it became routine. Juuko would at times move to her bed and defile her from there.

Her father’s heinous behaviour did not stop there. He would insult her and call her a bastard, beat her and sometimes threaten to behead her.

Whenever the victim asked her father why he was doing such an abominable act to her, her father would assault her.
Juuko made it known to his daughter that if she ever revealed to anyone his sexual relations with her, he would kill her.

The girl was only a child when her father started sexually abusing her. She was in such pain afterwards as he left her feeling depressed and worthless. She could do nothing but to endure it.

This incestuous sexual abuse went on for several months as the girl endured the hurt occasioned by her own dad. Later when the girl had turned 15 years old, she conceived from her father.

As the saying goes, every thief has 40 days. On November 14, 2012, Juuko’s habitual sexual molestation of his daughter was busted.

A curious neighbour looked at the girl and suspected she was pregnant. Upon consulting Juuko, without knowing he was the culprit, the neighbour took the girl to Wakisa Ministries, a local NGO operating in Namirembe, Kampala.

The NGO rehabilitates and supports young pregnant girls. While at Wakisa Ministries, the victim concealed the person responsible for her pregnancy.

Her father visited her regularly until she gave birth to twins in January 2013.

Upon giving birth, the girl was told by the NGO administrator, Ms Patience Bahirirwe, to return to her father’s home. Being young and naïve, the victim returned home thinking that by this time her father had reformed.

Unrepentant
Her father’s frequent visits to her at the NGO blinded her to think he was now a reformed man. But she soon discovered the situation had not changed.
A few days after her return, police showed up at their home and arrested her father for raping a student at a hostel near Ndejje University where he had got another job as a watchman.

At this point, the victim gained courage to return to Wakisa Ministries and reveal her ordeal. She went to the NGO and confided in Ms Bahirirwe what had happened.
The girl unsealed the secret and told Ms Bahirirwe that it was her father who impregnated her and for that reason, she would not be returning home because he had vowed to make her his wife after returning from police custody.

The girl’s mother had separated with Juuko because of his abusive acts. Juuko was later released by police and upon his return home, he did not find his daughter. He went straight to the NGO and forcibly took away the daughter’s twins from her, hoping she would follow the babies home. The girl did not.

Juuko sensed that her daughter had spilled the beans to the NGO administrator. He made several futile attempts to sneak into the NGO to lure the girl away in a bid to escape justice.

However, Ms Bahirirwe, upon receiving the girl’s horrifying story, had been left riled and wanted the victim to get justice. This was an extraordinary act of sexual abuse unlike the previous cases Ms Bahirirwe had come across. This was a sexual offence committed against a girl by her own father.

Ms Bahirirwe counselled the victim who in turn agreed to make a statement at police. She notified the director of the NGO, Ms Vivian Kityo, about the victim’s revelations.

The victim’s long walk to justice had begun. On March 20, 2013, Ms Kityo escorted the girl to Old Kampala Police Station to make a statement. After recording the girl’s statement, the police arrested the father and recovered the twins.

Detective Corporal Joyce Achan took Juuko, the daughter and her twins to the police surgeon to take blood samples from them for analysis.

On March 25, 2013 the blood samples were taken to the Government Analytical Laboratory in Wandegeya, Kampala.
The samples were taken to the lab for DNA test to establish the paternity and genetic connection between the sample donors.

On April 19, 2013, a report by Mr Geoffrey Onen, the principal government analyst and head of the DNA laboratory at Wandegeya, confirmed the genetic match between the samples. The report stated that Juuko could not be excluded from the paternity of the victim and the twins. Both the twins and their mother were confirmed as Juuko’s biological children.

Suspect found sane
Juuko was taken for mental examination and found to be of sound mind. Police charged him with aggravated defilement and forwarded his case file to Mwanga II Magistrate’s Court on April 28, 2013.

He was charged but could not plead to the charge because a magistrate’s court cannot hear capital offences. Juuko’s case would be heard by the High Court.

He spent about six months on remand in Luzira prison. He was brought back to the magistrate’s court. The State prosecutor, Ms Suzan Abinyo, said investigations into the case had been completed. On October 2, 2013 Juuko was committed to the High Court for trial.

Final blow

Two years later, the High Court started hearing his case on February 29, 2016. Juuko appeared before Justice Masalu Musene and denied the charge of aggravated defilement.

The State prosecutor, Mr Isaiah Wanamama, presented three witnesses who included the victim and Ms Bahirirwe and Mr Onen, the principal government analyst and head of the DNA laboratory.

The testimonies of these witnesses assisted prosecution to prove its case against Juuko.
He was found guilty of aggravated defilement and sentenced to 25 years in jail.

Before sentencing Juuko, Justice Musene reprimanded him for decadent behaviour, saying: “What you did is contrary to African culture. Only animals do what you did. It is better to put you away from children.”

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