January 2011 - Blackherbals.com

Cont’d from page 1 – 62,000 Ugandan Children Defiled“It’s absurd that in the last six years a total of 61,888children have been reportedly defiled. While the statisticsof the married children stands at 65,000 it’s equallyworrying,” ANPPCAN Uganda’s Executive DirectorDeogratias Yiga, said in the press statement.According to the police crime report for 2008, a total of10,365 sex related crimes were registered. Defilementcases were 8635, however out of this figure just 4,124cases were taken to courts and only 333 (3.8%)convictions were recorded. While rape cases alsoincreased from 599 cases in 2007 to 1,536 in 2008 thestate managed to proceed 241 cases to court and out ofthese only 52 convicts were made.This high incidence of child sexual abuse has resultedinto more children contracting HIV/AIDS, and othersexual transmitted diseases, increased child pregnancies,early marriages and high school drop out rates. Thestatement emphasised that child sexual abuse denieschildren their basic right to survival and development.Practice escalatesOver the past six years, the trend has just escalated. In2007 a total of 12,300 children were defiled, this was anincrease from 2006 where 11,923 defilement cases wererecorded. Similarly in 2005, the police force reported7,844 defilement cases down from 13,929 in 2004 and in2003, the vice saw 7257 children abused.Although the amended Section (129) of the Penal CodeAct 2007 provides for a death penalty to the person foundguilty of defilement, most of the offenders have walkedfree. Local NGOs say this is due to the unfriendly justicesystem in the country.Recently the Thematic Group, an association comprising15 NGOs fighting against child sexual abuse and lead byANPPCAN Uganda concluded that most child survivorsof abuse are required to give evidence in the strange andoften intimidating court environment without priorpreparation of the child about the court proceedings. Thisthey argue put children in very difficult procedures todeal with the intrusive defence lawyers and prosecutorswho are ill trained to communicate with the children.Government reactsSpeaking on UBC radio, a government owned stationduring a talk show on the rights of children 0n June 18 inwhich ANPPCAN participated, the Minister for ChildrenLt. Jessica Alupo admitted that there is a gap in the localjustice system. “This problem cuts across all sectors ofthe government and needs every person’s intervention.For instance, this court issue is handled by the JusticeMinistry, but we are collectively working to address thechildren’s concerns,” She said.Alupo appealed to the public to work closely with thegovernment and inform the authorities about any suspectedcase of child abuse. She said the highest percentage of childsexual abuse suspects are the people close to the childrenciting the close relatives.However, the Ministry of Gender, Labour and SocialDevelopment in Uganda which handles aspects of socialprotection and child fare remains among the least fundedministries in Uganda.http://www.anppcanug.org/?page=ugandans_raped☻☻☻☻☻☻Uganda: 1,000 KenyanTeachers Sacked Over SexAbuseThe Monitor9 October 2010More than 1,000 teachers have been sacked in Kenya forsexually abusing girls over the past two years, theauthorities say. Senior government official Ahmed Husseintold the BBC that most of the victims were aged between12 and 15.He said a nationwide confidential helpline set up to helpvictims had revealed that the problem was much morewidespread than previously thought. Most of the cases haveoccurred in rural primary schools. "Initially we were notable to know what was happening in the country because ofthe poor communication, but now mobile phones are acrossthe country," Mr Hussein, from the Ministry of Gender,Children and Social Development, said.Last year, 600 male teachers were dismissed and so far thisyear 550 teachers have lost their jobs for either kissing,touching or impregnating girls out of 240,000 teacherscountrywide. "A number of them have been taken to court,and they have been sentenced," he said. Brian Weke, theprogramme director for the Cradle, a child rightsfoundation in Kenya, agreed the problem was widespread.He gave an example of a case in Nyanza province last year:"I found that in one primary school we had over 20 girlswho were pregnant and nearly half the numbers wereimpregnated by teachers."However, he said the officials investigating the abuse werenot passing vital information to get convictions. The BBCsaid teachers who are caught defiling their students end uppaying the parents to prevent cases reaching court.http://allafrica.com/stories/201010111962.html☻☻☻☻☻☻-2- Traditional African Clinic – January 2011