Get rid of  defilers in our society

It is disgusting. According to Criminal Investigations Directorate statistics released recently, at least 6,888 children were defiled between January and June (See story: ‘7000 girls defiled between Jan and June – police reports’ Daily Monitor, September 9).

While the age of the defiled girls top at 17 years, the most tragic issue in all this is that 620 children below eight years, are part of defiled cases.  

It is our considered view that it is not enough for police to only release statistics of children who have been defiled. It is equally important that the authorities institute criminal investigations and move as fast as possible, to finding the perpetrators of the despicable act.

It is important that the unscrupulous men who commit such cruel acts get arrested, arraigned in court, and if convicted, be punished severely. Why would any right thinking person pounce on a child of only eight years and rape her? 

Considering the fact that defilers put the lives and future of their victims at great risk, it is critical that the government urgently puts in place programmes that can help to restore hope to the victims of the indecent act. It is hope that they need most. 

Meanwhile, the government, community leaders and other stakeholders should be interested in ascertaining the cause of defilement and related acts in society.

There is no doubt that the Covid-19 lockdown, in which government directed all institutions of learning in the country to close, has contributed a great deal to the surge in defilement cases. Children were sent to stay home with their parents, or guardians to prevent the spread of coronavirus disease (Covid-19). But their prolonged stay at home has resulted in unintended consequences.

It is instructive to note that police registered 13,613 defilement cases in 2019, down from 15,366 cases in 2018,  meaning that the cases are reducing. However, it is feared that should the trend continue as has been capture between January and  June, then the 2020 annual defilement cases will be higher. 

Therefore, everything should be done to weed out defilers from our midst to ensure the safety of our children. It is possible that gender-based violence is partly to blame for a spike in defilement cases. 

Where parents fight and abuse one another, especially during the lockdown, they forget their cardinal role of providing food and other basics for their children. In the circumstances, the hungry children become vulnerable, hence evil-minded men can entice children with small eats, including sweets. 

There is also an urgent need to break the culture of making it frightening for victims of defilement to report their ordeal. It is possible that there are many unreported defilement cases as girls fear humiliation to report their tormentors to the authorities.

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