200 fathers defile daughters

Despite the risk of a death sentence, defilement cases and the number of fathers defiling their own daughters have more than doubled in the last one year, the latest statistics from government indicate.
The law defines defilement as having sexual intercourse with a person under 18 years of age. 

It categorises defilement into two; simple (14 years of age and above, but below 18 years) and aggravated (below 14 years of age). On conviction for simple defilement, a person is liable up to life imprisonment or death for aggravated defilement.
Many of the cases of defilement or sexual abuse go unreported for fear of social stigma or embarrassment since many of the perpetuators are often family members or relatives. 

Statistics from the Ministry of Gender indicate that 200 fathers sexually abused their daughters in the 1,682 total defilement cases reported last year through the child helpline services. This is a sharp increase from 90 fathers who sexually abused their daughters in the 451 cases reported in the previous year.  
Another 175 complaints of defilement and sexual abuse were reported against immediate family members like uncles, aunts, brothers, sisters, grandparents and step-fathers and mothers. 

A source at the Gender ministry, who declined to be named, said government needs to consolidate data on child sexual abuses. The source said currently, the data is scattered between police, probation offices, NGOs and health centres.
“We have received a good number of defiled children from different reporting centres. Over 1,000 girls were defiled by their own fathers. No government agency is going to give you the exact data, especially in the lockdown. What we are planning to do is to monitor through NIRA [National Identification and Registration Authority] the cases of child birth in these months starting January to around July. We will know those girls conceived during lockdown,” the source said.    

                 
Jane, 8, a resident of Lyantonde District, is one of those unlucky girls who are unlikely to get justice after she was reportedly defiled by her step-father in November last year. Sources say the suspect was arrested but released a few days later after police were allegedly bribed.
Jane’s mother complained and the suspect was re-arrested. But the defiler’s friends retaliated and waylaid the mother, beating her to near death. 

This case has never taken off in court and sources fear the suspect could be out of jail. The survivor and her mother are living in trauma. They have sought refuge at a local church as they recover from the trauma. The district authorities are confused on how to proceed. 
Mr David Muyanja, a child protection officer at Remnant Generations in Lyantonde, says they receive calls to rescue defiled girls almost daily but are frustrated with the judicial system. He says most of the cases whose files were submitted to court long time ago have not been heard. 

“There is no justice for the girls. Even where we have suspects admitting they defiled a girl, the magistrate doesn’t have jurisdiction to handle the case. These will be remanded until we don’t know when,” Mr Muyanja notes.
The Lyantonde District probation officer, Mr Andrew Timothy Kamugasa, says it is increasingly becoming difficult to handle defilement cases in the district because they do not have a resident chief magistrate and perpetuators always return to society after the mandatory remand period, bragging that they cannot be punished. 

He says between August 2020 and February this year, his office received 1,030 child abuse cases, of which 144 were of defilement, 55 of child marriages, 80 of teenage pregnancies, while incest accounted for 15 cases.
No defiler has been convicted for the victims to receive justice.
“Defilement cases are many. When these perpetuators go to court and after spending some months in prison, you see the man back. A serial defiler starts telling people; ‘you sent me there, what have they done to me?’ Before you know it, he has done it again,” Mr Kamugasa narrates.

Mr Kamugasa’s testimony is corroborated by the district officer-in-charge of Criminal Investigations Department (CID), Mr Robert Asendu. 
Mr Asendu says he has been frustrated when they conclude investigations and files are submitted to court but there is no judge to hear the case. He says CID investigated 48 defilement cases in the district last year, and 27 files were taken to court but none has been heard.

“I have been in Lyantonde for four years. There has never been any witness summoned to appear before court. Initially, we were taking them to Masaka. Somehow they had arrangements with chief magistrates’ courts to have High Court circuits but it has never taken off. We take suspects to court. They finish mandatory period on remand. They are released without trial. After three months on remand, you are entitled to bail. Suspects get bail and the case never progresses,” Mr Asendu said.

He says because of this, the victims and their caretakers are reluctant to report other defilement cases because they have lost hope in the justice system.
“Victims are not getting the justice. They are reluctant to report. They say instead of taking the man to court, why can’t I settle the matter with the family? They have lost faith in the justice system. We have tried to raise it with the justice system but we have not got tangible response,” Mr Asendu added.

Mr Asendu says although they have registered some justice in the High Court, it is usually delayed. He says, for example, six defilement cases were concluded last year but they had dragged on from 2017.
On whether he has received complaints of bribery against his officers, Mr Asendu says no such a case has reached his desk but adds that he cannot rule it out.  
“I have never attended to such an allegation. If it is a capital case, it is handled. They could be there but I have never heard the allegations. There are times when police does not have transport to go to the village to record cases, we work with others,” Mr Asendu said.

He cautions parents against entrusting their children with neighbours and workers at home. He says they are the most offenders in abusing young girls.
Mr Kamugasa says some parents look at their daughters as a source of wealth and when defilement happens, they want to get money from the offenders instead of reporting them to police for arrest and prosecution.

“They sit down at a roundtable and negotiate. ‘If I am not taking you to police, release some money’. Sometimes parents force the girl to marry the man who defiled her and ask for as little as Shs200,000 and two crates of beer. It is that terrible. It is that painful. There are other legal structures which benefit from this. Sometimes the Local Council authorities hide, the parents do not want to reveal some information. It becomes tricky,” Mr Kamugasa says.
He urges government to scrap the Shs25,000 fee charged for medical examination of defilement victims, which he says many cannot afford.              

                                              
Ms Rose Wakikona, a programme officer at Centre for Health, Human Rights and Development (CEHURD), asks government to invest in homes which will shelter sexual violence survivors as they recover from the trauma.
She also says some cases collapse because police is ill-equipped in collecting evidence to pin suspects. 
She says police also depends mainly on oral statements from witnesses, which are unreliable evidence in court.
 
“Our police does not recognise that they have a gap in collecting evidence. We continually tell them that the body is a crime scene for anybody who has suffered sexual violence. It must be investigated from head to toe in order to link the crime to the perpetrator. They do not take that extra care. When you move them to take that extra care, they always say they do not have the resources or equipment. At times they even do not know they are supposed to do that,” Ms Wakikona said.
There were also many cases of incest reported in Lyantonde but because of cultural issues, families prefer to keep quiet to avoid embarrassment.

Judiciary speaks out

The Judiciary spokesperson, Mr Jamson Karemani, admits to the weaknesses in disposal of cases but blames it on lack of human resource and funds. He explains that out of the 82 gazetted chief magisterial areas in the country, 58 are filled and 15 chief magistrates are serving in acting capacity.

Mr Karemani cites Masaka Chief Magistrate, who is currently handling cases from Rakai, Sembabule, Kalangala and Lyantonde districts, all of which should have separate courts.

“The challenge is lack of manpower. The chief magistrate of Masaka takes care of Masaka, Rakai, Sembabule, and Kalangala. Those are magisterial areas he is handling as one person. He cannot manage all these cases arising from these areas. There will be delays. By the time the case of Lyantonde is attended to, the suspect has already reached mandatory period [on remand] and the person must be released on bail under the law. Once he is released, those are the issues you were talking about. The suspects have been released before their cases are concluded,” Mr Karemani said.

He further says the High Courts in Iganga, Moroto, Hoima, Rukungiri and Luweero do not have resident judges. He also cites understaffing in the Supreme Court, where they need five more judges to add to the current 10, while Court of Appeal requires an additional 11 judges for them to dispose of appeal cases effectively.

“We lack judges. Also, each case needs legal representation. Many cannot afford it. We have to provide and we pay each lawyer Shs1m to defend a suspect to conclusion. We do not have this money. These two lead to delays. When a case is not heard in time, when you fix a case after three years, a girl who was defiled when she was 17 will then be 21 years and sometimes already married,” Mr Karemani states. 

He says when the prosecution calls such a girl that the case is up for hearing, she says it is embarrassing her before her husband. 
“The husband may not even be aware she was defiled. You are bringing problems to her. You will call her and she says she is no longer interested. The question is, has she had justice? The answer is no. If you had the case heard when she was still interested, it would have been good. Now you want to give her justice at a time she has moved on and cause injustice instead. At the end, the case collapses,” Karemani further explains.    
    
He says as the Judiciary lobbies for more funding, the public should utilise the plea bargain system where suspects agree with the prosecution and admit the alleged offences to get a lenient sentence in return without undergoing the full trial. Sometimes the accused also accept to compensate the victims.