2,000 children in Kabale abused last year - Report
An aerial view of a section of Kabale City. PHOTO/FILE/COURTESY
What you need to know:
- Leaders say there is need for joint and concerted effort by all stakeholders to stop child abuse cases.
More than 2,000 children were abused last year in Kabale District, the probation office has said.
It attributed the cases to the Covid-19-induced lockdown, poverty, domestic violence and lack of social support .
Ms Monica Muhumuza, the district senior probation and social welfare officer, on Friday said her office registered 2,463 cases of critical child abuse of which 1,867 were teenage pregnancies.
“Critical child abuse indicators in Kabale during the Covid-19 pandemic from March 2020 to March 2021 include1,867 cases of teenage pregnancies, 231 cases of domestic violence, 206 cases of child neglect, 24 cases of child trafficking, 10 cases of child murder, 62 cases of aggravated defilement, 15 cases of child theft and 33 cases of child abandonment, ” Ms Muhumuza said.
She was delivering a report on child protection in the district at a regional training workshop for media institutions on children rights advocacy.
Ms Muhumuza added that Covid-19 restrictions that included closure of education institutions made children redundant, thus exposing them to abuses.
However, she cited low budget allocation from the district to orphans and vulnerable children programmes, delayed reporting of cases, inconsistencies in the reported cases justifying falsifications as some of the challenges to fighting the vice.
According to the Uganda Bureau of Statistics report as of July 1, 2020, Ms Muhumuza said the district has a population of 248,700 people of which 133,050 are children below 18 years, and 43,194 of those are orphans and vulnerable children.
Mr Gordon Manzi, the district clerk, said the cases have affected universal primary and secondary education because the victims always dropout of schools.
Appeal
“There is need for joint and concerted effort by all stakeholders to stop child abuse cases because they have not only affected the cultural and traditions of the people but also government educational programmes,” Mr Manzi said.
Mr Martin Kiiza, the executive director of National Children Authority, the organisers of the workshop, urged media practitioners to promote positive coverage about children affairs and give children platforms to air out their views.
“Always ensure that you include topics on child survival, child development, child protection in your daily media programmes besides emphasising the promotion of children rights to scare away those with intentions of abusing them,” Mr Kiiza said.
In October last year, the acting district health officer, Mr Alfred Besigensi, proposed that health workers give family planning services to teenagers to reduce cases of teenage pregnancies.
A report by United Nations Population Fund in June 2020 showed that more than 6,000 girls had been impregnated in the first few months of the lockdown alone.
