Acid attacks: Why they keep happening

Since Pastor Umar Mulinde’s acid attack on Christmas Eve, two more patients have been admitted at Mulago Hospital with acid burns from vicious attacks. But when an acid-attack patient now tells the world their story of brutal misfortune, say on television or in a newspaper, they instead expose themselves to more attacks.

Daniel Kimosho, Mulago Hospital’s public relations officer, says, “We don’t allow journalists to talk to acid victims anymore. When the assailants see them in the media, they return to finish them off. Recently, a doctor was put on gun-point here by an assailant (who was after a patient).”

Acid is an important chemical. Its properties qualify it as an essential constituent of our lives, used in batteries and a key component of manufacturing and mining, and in school laboratories. But against that tide of importance, the chemical has grown into a cheap, easy to access, and yet fatal weapon, which has blemished lives permanently.

It is on a list of important chemicals whose haphazard regulation on the market, and at end-user points, has made them a necessary evil. They include poisons, like insecticides, pesticides and fertilisers, medicines, acid and petroleum. Medicines like aspirin have been abused and used in suicidal acts while petroleum has been used in arson.

Although most proposals have called for the government to create and enforce laws that regulate the sale and distribution of especially acid, it seems unlikely that such actions alone would plug all holes and curtail any further abuse. This is because a set of laws already exist regulating the circulation of for instance, agricultural chemicals. That, however, has not stopped the abuse of those chemicals.

Uganda is thus staring straight into the face of a lethal-chemical abuse crisis. And with an apparent failure to both set up, and, fully implement efficient chemical related laws, the country is left in urgent need of a still elusive solution.

Easy access
Diazinon, commonly known as dizon, is one of the most used pesticides. But it is also one of the most commonly abused. Dr David Ogaram, a toxicologist at Uganda Safety Council, who has studied the impact of chemicals on life and the environment, says it has been used by people to commit suicide and also, used with criminal intentions to poison and kill.

The chemical is however available to anyone that wishes to get it at Shs3,000 for a 28ml bottle in farm supply stores. It is similar with acid. For Shs8,500 can get you a litre of concentrated sulphuric acid in school laboratory supply stores. But there are also indirect forms of purchasing these chemicals. Batteries that are used in cars and other engines use a less concentrated form of sulphuric acid.

The pH (a measurement of the acidity of a liquid) of battery acid is 4, a little weaker than concentrated acid whose pH is 1. This acid is, however, still corrosive enough to inflict harm on a human body, says Francis Mawanda, a medical clinical officer at Mengo Hospital. And it is this loophole that makes even the best forms of regulation of trade in acid fallible, as criminal hands would still access the chemical indirectly, such as through batteries. Medicines and petroleum are also accessible to anyone on the market.

The effect of easy access is that it puts these chemicals within reach of people who have little or no knowledge about the substance’s effects on human life, says Dr Ogaram. He cites cases of illiterate farmers who upon suffering a lice attack, opt to use pesticides as a remedy, pouring it on the head and allowing the chemicals to spill in through the skull and harm body tissues.

Failure of laws
Apart from acid, petroleum, medicine and agricultural chemicals all have distinct laws aimed at regulating their sale and distribution. But this, they have not managed to do. “They are like a patched cloth, covering some parts of the body and leaving other parts uncovered,” says Dr Ogaram.

The Control of Agricultural Chemicals Act for instance, specifically bars anybody from manufacturing, distributing or being in possession of agricultural chemicals except in accordance with regulations in the act. However, the Act is not specific on what these regulations exactly are and it is no wonder anybody can be in possession of the chemicals.

The Petroleum Supply Act seeks to monitor the supply of petroleum products, through issuing of permits and trading licenses, along the supply chain of importation and only until the final retail trader, but does not continue past that. The police, after a spate of fires recently barred the public from purchasing petrol at fuel stations. But that restriction has since relaxed.

A 2010 audit into the National Drug Authority by the Auditor General’s office showed major breaches of the National Drug Authority Act, like allowing unregistered drug shops to run, which in turn encouraged illegal operators and sub-standard drugs to thrive on the market. Also, many medicines are available for sale in groceries without the supervision of a pharmacist let alone a prescription from a doctor.

Dr Ogaram says that failure of the law is twofold – not only does the laws’ wording offer inadequate regulations, these inadequate regulations are themselves poorly implemented. This has a lot to do with and inadequate staffing to man trade and user point across the country and poorly stocked laboratories.

Acid is un-attended
But even with continued acid attacks, acid, unlike the other chemicals above, still has no law regulating its use, even as a starting point. Prudence Komujinya, a project officer at CARE Uganda, became an acid attack victim 10 years ago. She was a teacher at Muntuyera High School then. She co-founded the Acid Survivor’s Foundation Uganda (ASFU). But is disappointed that no law has yet been put in place to manage acid.

“ACFU engaged in advocacy for a law that would regulate the sale and distribution of acid without success. Such a law would have had all traders and users of acid registered so that it is easy to tell where a certain acid was bought and by whom,” she says.

However, Ms Komujinya says some progress against acid attacks has been made. “The attitude towards acid-attack survivors has improved, especially from the service providers like medical personnel, police, judiciary and the general public. We are having the judiciary give out tougher sentences to convicted culprits,” she says.

But because of the failure to regulate the use of acid, little has been done to prevent acid attacks. “There’s still a long way to go for prevention. Now, all we do is reactionary, not preventative,” she says.

And yet the effect that acid attacks have on people, mean it just cannot be ignored any more. Ms Komujinya says that the perception used to be that only the less fortunate in society were attacked with acid. But this is not the case. And the fact that a prominent Pentecostal preacher, plus Ms Gloria Kankunda, a wife to then higher education minister, Mwesigwa Rukutana, were attacked makes it all the more significant.“We need to recognise that everybody is at risk,” Ms Komujinya says.

Because of its effect, acid is a weapon. It is for this reason that in search of a solution, police’s publicist, Asuman Mugenyi, says acid regulation should be put in the hands of police, just like it is for guns and explosives. Ms Komujinya says acid is an even more deadly weapon because it is not commonly known. “It’s conspicuous, if someone approached you with a container, you wouldn’t even suspect or know they are carrying a weapon – acid. And many people are taking advantage of that. It is unlike other weapons like guns. Not anybody can buy a gun easily, yet anyone can buy acid if they so wish.”

Moral rethink
Regulation, laws and policing may impart law and order, but they do not deal with the original cause of why anybody would knowingly abuse a lethal chemical. And as legal arguments are flaunted, many suggest a rethink of public morals, because before every act of assault or even suicide, is a moral discussion.

The fact that these chemicals are essential to life on a daily basis, make them hard to regulate and as Mr Mugenyi says, it would be hard even for the police to tell who went to a shop to buy acid, poison or petrol with an intention to commit crime. Hon Hussein Kyanjo, shadow minister for internal affairs, says this is not about policies but about the moral fabric of society.

“People have cars and they can be used to knock and kill people. If you don’t correct society’s moral failure, then even if you put laws they will not help.” he says. And it seems the solution to an increase in criminal abuse of chemicals will only be arrived at with an action that sees government’s regulations on one hand, team up with society moral rebirth on the other.

“There is need to invest more in imparting moral values that promote better conflict resolution strategies - whether those conflicts be real or imaginary, rather than resorting to violence,” Ms Komujinya says.

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