Christine Kyarikunda during the interview. PHOTO BY WILLIAM KINTU
Christine Kyarikunda’s arms bear the scars of her past. The bruises and bite marks are painful reminders of the emotional, physical, and financial abuse the 33-year-old mother of three endured at the hands of the man she once called her husband, Francis Byaruhanga.
Kyarikunda lives alone in Nsorora village, Kamwenge Town Council in Kamwenge district. She lives in a large house that was once a happy home. Her only company are tenants who rent out the single rooms behind the house. A large banana plantation surrounds the house.
The two have known each other all their lives. Byaruhanga’s father and Kyarikunda’s father were good friends back in the village in Kitagwenda district. Byaruhanga was her teacher in Primary Four.
“Due to the friendship of our fathers, mine would always give me food to take to him in the teacher’s quarters. He later left the teaching profession and joined Uganda Prisons Service,” Kyarikunda says.
When her parents died in 2005, life became hard for the firstborn of six children. Her siblings were distributed among relatives and some of them did not continue with their education.
In 2010, when Kyarikunda was 18 years old and in Senior Three, Byaruhanga came back into her life. He was about 30 years old and ready for marriage. His relatives had informed him that the young girl was wife material.
“I think I looked older than I was, because he told me he wanted to marry me. Since I had known him all my life, there were no questions. Besides, my education journey was unstable due to a lack of school fees. He paid dowry and began our married life,” she recalls.
At the time, her husband was a prison warden in Bufulubi Prison in Mayuge district, where they made their home in the staff quarters. A year later, the couple welcomed their first child.
“We eventually had three children. From the little we had, I would send money back home to my siblings. Our marriage had ups and downs like any other, only that he used to abuse me vehemently. On several occasions, he told me that I did not have a brain,” Kyarikunda laments.
In 2015, the couple acquired land in Kamwenge Town Council and constructed their marital home, complete with a banana plantation. He had been transferred to Kakira Prison, in Jinja district, as the officer-in-charge. At the time, Kyarikunda’s younger sister was in Senior One.
“She sent me a request, asking me to help her with school fees. After I talked to my husband, he agreed to her request and she came to live with us. She was 13-years-old,” Kyarikunda explains.
After one and a half years of living, she began to notice that there was something between her sister and her husband. She was convinced they had become lovers. Her sister was in Senior Three.
“One day, my husband told me in jest, ‘I now have two wives.’ I did not take it seriously but I became suspicious. We began quarreling and fighting. When my sister was in Senior Four, I told him I was taking her back to the village. My husband told me I should be the one to leave the home,” Kyarikunda says.
In 2017, her sister got pregnant. Their husband took her to his mother in the village in Kitagwenda district. When Kyarikunda visited her mother-in-law and found her sister there, they fought.
“I realised that we were no longer sisters. She had become my co-wife. When I beat her, our mother-in-law took me to the police station and opened a case of assault against me. I had to part with some money before I was released out of custody,” Karikunda says, tears in her eyes.
While the couple lived in the staff quarters of Kakira Prison, Byaruhanga rented a room for Kyarikunda’s sister in Kakira town.
Dealing with physical abuse
From then on, he physically assaulted Kyarikunda until they separated. After attending a three-month training course at the National Leadership Institute - Kyankwanzi, Byaruhanga took Kyarikunda back to their home in Nsorora village. He rented a home for her sister in Kitagwenda.
“Over time, he began neglecting his responsibilities towards our three children. He often beat me in front of them. The first time he did that, our eldest child was six. I reported a case of assault at the police station,” she says.
When he was posted to Rangem Main Prison in Pakwach district as the deputy officer-in-charge, he did not inform his wife. Instead, it was a friend who told her. She visited him, thinking they could mend their relationship. But alas! Their situation deteriorated.
“During the first Covid-19 lockdown, he came home to Kamwenge to visit us. When he was leaving for Pakwach, he took the children with him, without my knowledge. He also took my sister to go and live with him,” Kyarikunda explains.
As a businesswoman, she owned three mobile money shops in Kamwenge town. Before he left for Packwach, Byaruhanga confiscated all the mobile phones and cash in the shops. He stole her handbag and phone. He also took the family car.
“When he left, a broker approached me, saying my husband had placed our house on the market. That is when I woke up to his plans. I immediately boarded a bus to Packwach and traveled to the prison, which is a long distance from the town,” she says.
Kyarikunda, her husband, her sister, and the four children all slept in one room that night. The next night, her sister left for the trading centre. The couple entered into one of their perennial fights.
“He picked a panga (machete) and swung it at me. I lifted my left arm to protect my head. The panga sliced my arm and I grabbed it with my hand. He continued pushing it, trying to sever off my hand. I was only saved by the children who unlocked the door and I ran out of the room,” she reminisces.
Although Byaruhanga ran after Kyarikunda with the panga, wanting to finish her off, their neighbours grabbed him. She was bleeding profusely and by the time she was transported to Wadelai Health Centre III, she was unconscious.
“I was disappointed that the prison authorities did not seem to care about my situation. They declined to take me to the police station to report a case of attempted murder. They even refused to help me with a mobile phone to call my relatives. I told the officer in charge that I wanted to return to Kamwenge,” she says.
Her husband confiscated her handbag and mobile phone but eventually agreed to give her Shs50,000 for her fare. In Pakwach town, she reported a case at the police station.
However, according to Kyarikunda, when the officers discovered that her husband was working with Uganda Prison Service, they told her they did not have the funds to fuel the police truck to transport police officers to the prison to arrest her him.
The fight for her children
Due to the disruption caused by his actions, Byaruhanga was placed on forced leave for three months, which he spent with her co-wife. He often called her and warned her to leave his home in Kamwenge Town Council before he killed her.
“I decided to get a divorce but when the lawyer went to the village to serve him with the divorce papers, his relatives accused me of wanting to steal his property. His father said I wanted him to lose his job,” the distraught woman says.
The couple have accumulated a property portfolio. Besides their home and the rentals, they own three pieces of land in Kamwenge Town Council. They also own land in Kitagwenda district.
“At some point, we agreed that I would remain with all the property in the town council while he took the land in the village. But then, after taking the children, he changed his mind. He wants me out of his home,” she says.
Kyarikunda says in January 2021, her husband hired a gang of criminals to kill her. Fortunately, one of them felt sorry for her and told her about the plan. The criminal agreed to record a statement at the police station, pinning Byaruhanga. However, a few months later, he was killed by a mob.
“From that time, my husband ignored me. I last saw my children in January 2021. I heard that he was posted to Katakwi Prison. Whenever I send WhatsApp messages asking about my children, he blocks me. My sister does not pick up my calls, either,” Kyarikunda laments.
In December 2022, Kyarikunda approached Uganda Prisons Service with her plight. Officials in the Probation and Welfare Department assured her that they would only help her if she withdrew all the cases she had reported against Byaruhanda at different police stations. She refused to do so.
“They said they would call me but to date, they have never called. I went to my husband’s parents and asked them to forgive me for whatever sin I committed so that I could see my children. Instead, they told me that my children would look for me when they grow up,” she says.
Kyarikunda says she stopped sending her husband the money that their tenants pay because he never responds to her messages.
“I know he will be angry with me for coming to the press but I hope someone will fight for me and convince him to let me see my children. I am depressed. I do not know how my children are, whether they go to school, or if they are given meals,” she says.
When Daily Monitor contacted Frank Baine, the spokesperson of Uganda Prisons Service, he confirmed that Byaruhanga is an Assistant Superintendent of Prisons. However, he stated that this was a personal issue with a criminal element, that should be handled by the police.
By press time, the police spokesperson, Rusoke Kituuma, had not responded to our queries. When Daily Monitor, following an agreed upon interview, visited Katakwi Government Prison to talk to Byaruhanga, he declined to be interviewed.
However, he has since contacted Kyarikunda, begging her to hold off the publication of this story.
On some days, Kyarikunda tells herself to forget about her children. And she succeeds, but only for a while. The depression and longing for her offspring often come back with a huge force, shaking her to the core.
According to the 2024 Annual Crime Report of the Uganda Police Force, a total of 14,126 people were victims of domestic violence, of whom 3,161 were male adults, 10,276 were female adults, 323 were male juveniles and 366 were female juveniles.
