Epileptic child defiled by 50-year-old man, confined in house for 9 months

A 13-year-old defilement victim from Agweng Sub-county in Lira District has developed complication after being confined in a house for about nine months.
The victim, who started suffering from epilepsy at the age of five was allegedly defiled by a 50-year-old man on October 8, 2018.
The incident happened when the child followed her friends, who had gone to a nearby market.
The child’s father, Mr Gabriel Ogwang, then lodged a case against the suspect at Agweng Police Post.
The suspect was reportedly arrested and remanded to Erute prison in Lira District.
At this point, it is alleged the child’s father and mother confined her to protect the family image.
Since then, the poor family has been struggling to treat her condition at home without seeking any specialised care from any health facility.
“I rented out three of my gardens at Shs150, 000 to treat her but she has not improved,” Mr Ogwang, said on Saturday, admitting that the family confined the child because of fear of stigma.
“I have only been buying drugs from the clinic in the village here because I could not expose her condition to the public,” her father added.
The mother said since October last year, her daughter has been suffering from traumatic experiences she went through.
“I wish he (the suspect) had raped me instead of my daughter,” she said as tears rolled down her cheeks.
She said the child was taken to Lacor Hospital in Gulu Town because of her deteriorating condition.
Ms Grace Hilder Akite, a social worker with Mental Health Uganda Lira Association, acknowledged that rape still carries stigma among many victims.
“Many victims still do not report it and those who do spend weeks, if not years, fighting their case,” she said, adding that the 13-year-old child needs medical treatment and psychosocial rehabilitation.

Rampant cases
In Uganda, barely a day passes without media reports on cases of defilement, or other forms of sex-related crime against children.
Children are being subjected to sexual abuse within their communities, schools and homes yet these are the very places they should feel secure and safe.
The most common causes of defilement have been ignorance and illiteracy, poverty, cultural beliefs, ignorance of the law, sharing accommodation with older children which exposes them to early sex, child neglect as parents abdicate their role of parenting, permissiveness and generally moral degeneration.
The Ugandan law defines defilement as the act of having sexual intercourse with a girl under 18, while rape is having sex with a woman without her consent, usually by force. Often defilement involves relatives, married men, religious or professional people in the community. Worse still, some men rape or defile their own daughters.

2018 Police crime report

At least 1,580 rape cases were registered and only 644 cases were taken to court, out of which 16 cases secured convictions, according to police crime report of 2018.
Of these, one case was acquitted, seven dismissed and 620 were still pending in court while 618 were still under investigations.
596 suspects of rape were charged in court, 13 were convicted, one acquitted, seven discharged while 575 were still awaiting trial.