A second chance for victims of gender based violence

She is grateful that someone is interested in her story, but her smile of an innocent teenager suddenly disappears as we get down to business. She bites her finger nails, looks down on the ground as her small brown eyes are heavy with tears.
A counsellor, Susan Atim seated beside her, taps her on the back to reassure, “It is okay, it is okay.”

Annet* is 15 years old. She is seated at a verandah beside a shelter she has lately called home, her seven-month-old baby on her back. Sixteen months ago, her life changed for the worse.

Annet was living with her parents, and her two younger sisters; 13 and 11 years old and a seven-year-old brother in a small of village of Kaidebe, Otwal Sub-county, Oyam District. On the fateful day, there was a traditional marriage ceremony in the nearby village. Their father had gone to work. He is a teacher at Ader Primary School.

Annet, her siblings and their mother went to attend the ceremony. In the evening, their mother asked them to go back home. They agreed. Upon reaching home, Annet and her siblings were scared of staying in the house alone as it became dark. “Our cousin’s house was nearby so we thought he would give us security at night before our parents returned,” she recalls.

Solomon*, her cousin who is about 20 years old was in the house. His father had gone to Kampala and mother had stayed at the marriage ceremony like Annet’s. In the house were his three other brothers aged 11, 13 and 15. Solomon played music videos on his phone to entertain them before he tuned on pornographic videos and asked the girls whether they liked what they were seeing. They said “no” and asked him to turn back the music videos instead. He refused.

Raped by her brother
At this point, Solomon chased away his younger brothers. Annet and her siblings noticed that their cousin was acting strangely. They rose up to leave the house. Her sisters and brother were the first to get out of the house. As she followed them, Solomon stood in the doorway, blocking her from getting out. He grabbed her and threw her on the ground and laid himself on top of her. “Why are you doing this to me, please do not!” she pleaded. Her plea, however, fell on deaf ears. He blocked her mouth with his hands so no one would hear her scream. Not even her siblings in the house next door heard what was happening to Annet.

When Annet and her siblings walked back to their home they found that their mother had returned. “I wanted to tell her what had happened to me but then feared she would cane me.” She kept everything to herself. What followed was Annet missing her menstrual period for three months. She sought answers from her mother. The mother, however, told her that it was normal since she too, sometimes, misses her period.

It was her uncle’s wife four months later, who noticed her pregnancy. Annet’s chocolate black skin had turned pale yellow. She informed Annet’s mother who went straight to school to seek answers. The headmaster tasked the school nurse to examine the girl, and there; at 14 years, Annet was pregnant. She was expelled from school immediately.

Sheltering survivors
Helen Alabo heard about Annet’s predicament and took her to Lira Town for rehabilitation. Alabo was the Project officer with ActionAid, a nonprofit organisation, which runs a Gender Based Violence (GBV) Shelter Project in Lango sub-region. Through this project, girls like Annet are given temporary shelter.

Defiled by her father
Like Annet, Aisha* is also temporary housed here. She is 14-years-old. Her father, David* defiled her since she was five years. He would pick her from school and take her to the bush. “There, he ordered me to undress and laid on me. He did that to me several times.” He threatened her not to tell anyone about it. This happened for six years.

Teachers at her school noticed her state and sought to understand why. David got wind of it and cunningly moved fast and accused the head teacher of abusing his daughter. However, Aisha’s testimony gave him away. He was arrested.

How big is the problem?
Joseph Otim, the Assistant Inspector of Police and Officer in Charge of Child and Family Protection Lira District said cases of GBV is rampant in Lango sub-region. In Lira District alone, defilement ranks highest among children and physical abuse among women. 191 cases of defilement and 260 GBV cases were reported in the first six months of 2014 making an average of 31 and 43 cases respectively every month.

Otim attributes the problem partly to poverty saying children are forced in marriage by their parents to get material wealth and young girls are lured by gifts of money from older men, especially boda boda riders. “They (boda boda riders) are a serious problem. They pretend to be offering these girls rides to school but divert along the way and defile them instead,” he said. Otim said the problem could also be resulting from post conflict trauma as the region was severely affected by the two-decade Lord’s Resistance Army insurgency.

Dr Robson Akabu, the gender focal point person and Senior Clinical Officer at Lira Regional Referral Hospital says while GBV cases are common among persons 14 to 30 year of age, in the month of August, the hospital received five cases of children below 10 years from the sub-counties of Amach and Agali, who were defiled. “Their cases were worse. They had ruptured vaginas,” he said. The hospital receives 10 to 12 cases of defilement and rapes a week. In the same period (August), Otim said four deaths as result of domestic violence were registered at Lira Police Station.

Challenges
Abdul Otema, a boda boda rider in Lira town believes the shelter will instigate more violence in homes. “Women will begin running away from their homes to the shelter over petty reasons,” he argues. However, Irene Okello, one of the survivors disagrees. “The shelter is not here to separate us as families but to reconcile us. I did not have peace in my home when my husband physically abused me. I tried to explain my case to local council authorities in vain, but at the shelter, I received support. Today my children and husband are happy,” she said.
The shelter is located outside the business district of Lira town to ensure privacy of survivors. Ali Forder, the Deputy Head of DFID Uganda said survivors need a place where they can speak out without fear of being ridiculed or victimised.

Rebuilding lives
Immaculate Awori, ActionAid Lira Project Officer says since its establishment in June 2012, the shelter has received 243 cases of GBV survivors of which 124 have been resolved through mediation with respective families and the community. Annet hopes to return to school next year after nursing her baby for at least a year.

“Counsellors at the shelter talked to my parents and they [her parents] stopped insulting me. My parents have since accepted me back as their daughter,” said Annet. “We have a file here. CID is informed because it is a capital offence. Even the office of the Resident District Commissioner is aware of the case but the man is at-large. We are told he is in Kampala,” says Otim.

At the launch of the shelter, UNFPA Country Representative condemned violence against women and girls. “In many of our communities, women and girls struggle to get free from the chains of violence. They struggle for equality, respect and safety – even in their homes. We need to challenge social norms and practices that promote gender inequality,” she said. The Lira shelter is the fourth in Uganda. Others are in Moroto, Masaka and Mbarara.

On a national level

The extent of domestic violence

On the night of May 16, Sylvia Lwanga received a call from her 32-year-old daughter, Susan. She was being battered by her husband, Deo Sekitto. “I ordered her to pack up her property and come back home because it was too much,” she tells this reporter, tears rolling down her cheeks.

On the morning of May 18, Sylvia’s husband, Leonard, received a call from one of Sekitto’s friends announcing the death of their daughter at her home in Gayaza. She had been found hanging on a rope in one of the rooms. “It is unfortunate and unbelievable that a person who called for help could again take her life,” says Ms Lwanga, adding, “the husband (Sekitto) who was beating her in the night could not be seen. He did not appear during that time and has never appeared after the burial.”

Ms Lwanga found the deceased’s 16-month-old child with a neighbour.
Susan was buried on May 20 in Kyamulibwa, Masaka, and her case was registered at Kasangati Police Station. No suspect has, however, been arrested in connection with the case.

Ms Lwanga insists that her daughter’s body appeared to bear bruises on the back and neck, which she believes means Susan was battered to death.

A medical certificate obtained by the family from Mulago hospital indicates that Susan’s death was due to hanging. “If it was an accident, why has Sekitto decided to hide from us, abandoned their child and after taking the body away, he threw her property outside and locked the house and left the keys with two men but not even the Police has taken the trouble to visit the scene,” Leonard Lwanga, the deceased’s father says.

However, the officer in charge of Criminal Investigations at Kasangati Police Station Charles Kusingura says police took all the necessary steps including taking photographs of the deceased.

According to Mr Kusingura, the deceased’s body was found in another room; “This means the lady left her husband in their bedroom to commit suicide in another room and the husband was not around at the time of hanging.” Sekitto may not have hang his wife, but her family believes that the physical abuse he put her through played a big part in her death.

The cost of domestic violence
Susan is one of the many victims of domestic incidents which claim hundreds of lives despite the outcry by activists and the existence of the Domestic Violence Act 2010.
The 2013 Annual Crime Police Report indicates domestic violence among the leading ten top crimes. Uganda is suffering an annual economic burden of Shs77.5 billion due to domestic violence (DV), a situation activists said is worsened by lack of an implementation framework.

In a joint statement between the Police and the charity, Center for Domestic Violence Prevention (Cedovip), DV which remains rampant but a hidden crime costs individuals Shs19.5 billion directly every year while Shs2.4 billion is lost in terms of value of productive days lost due to the vice.

“DV in all forms is a criminal offence because it violates the rights and safety of the victim. Worse still, DV comes with severe consequences to the individuals, families, children, communities and the nation at large. This is such a huge loss to household incomes and a burden to the state,” reads the statement issued at the launch of the campaign against the vice.

Other effects of the vice are family breakups; children school drop outs, health complications like sexually transmitted infections, HIV, physical injuries and death.

Missing links in the law
The Domestic Violence Act outlaws any act against a partner in a relationship or past relationship who injures or endangers the health of the other and forbids repeated sending of abusive messages and letters.

However, activists say the delay in the enactment of the national Gender Based Violence policy which mandates government to commit resources in terms of funds, human capital, infrastructure and facilities has delayed delivery of justice to survivors and victims of the vice.

DV is manifested in a number of ways including physical abuse such as battery, abandonment, controlling behaviours, rape, defilement, early and forced marriages, sexual harassment and outright physical abuse. Indeed, sexual violence is one of the most common forms of domestic violence in Uganda.

The Uganda Demographic Health Survey 2011 also indicates that 56 per cent of women between ages 15 to 49 experience physical violence while 28 per cent experience sexual violence every year.

A 2012 report by CEDOVIP on the Economic cost of Domestic violence indicates that the country spends Shs77 billion while individuals spend Shsh21 billion while Police, health care workers and courts of laws spend Sh56 billion to address domestic violence.

[email protected] & [email protected]