70-year-old man arrested over raping 40-year-old Sironko woman

Police in Sironko District have arrested a 70-year-old man for reportedly raping a 45-year-old woman.

It’s reported that Olivia Neumbe, 45, a peasant and resident of Naluwali Cell, Mahempe Ward, Sironko Town Council in Sironko District, was allegedly raped by the suspect on Friday at around 8pm on her way home.

The Elgon Region police spokesperson Rogers Taitika said the suspect, who is a resident of the same area, waylaid the victim and raped her.

“It is alleged that the suspect intercepted her, forcefully grabbed her up to his home, tore the victim's clothes and later threw her down in the sitting room and allegedly raped her,” SP Taitika explained.

 According to him, incident was reported under CRB 399/2023 at Sironko Central Police station.

In a Saturday statement, police also said the scene of crime was visited by D/lP Rose Namukobe and the team of Sexual and Gender Based Violence (SGBV) for further investigations.  

Consequently, exhibits of a knicker belonging to the victim and under pants belonging to the suspect were recovered.

Uganda’s Elgon sub-region registered 71 cases of rape last year, data from the 2022 annual police report indicates.

The same report indicates that a total of 1,623 cases of rape were reported to police in 2022 compared to 1,486 cases in 2021, giving an increase of 9.2%.

By the end of 2022, 557 cases of rape were taken to court, out of which 3 cases secured convictions and 554 cases are still pending in court.

A total of 1,439 female adults and 184 female juveniles were victims of rape. About 625 suspects of rape were charged in court, while, 2 were convicted. Another 623 rape suspects are still awaiting trial, according to official security documents.