On July 30, 2011, the DPC Old Kampala Police Station then, Mr Siraje Bakaleke, and his men led a rescue operation of three children who had been allegedly abused, tortured and hidden in a ceiling board by their abusive father. The rescue operation likened to movie scenes by American movie star, Arnold Schwarzenegger, were carried out in Nakulabye, a Kampala suburb, where the father of the children stayed. The names of his three children have been concealed since they are minors. According to Mr Robinson Magezi, one of the maternal uncles of the children who was among the rescue team, the lunchtime operation turned dramatic when the father of the children viewed via his CCTV cameras police officers forcing his gate open. He knew he was in danger. Mr Magezi explained that at this time, the father and his three children were inside the house, although the children’s individual mothers were not staying with them. According to one of the children who spoke with the Sunday Monitor recently, their father started panicking upon seeing the police through the cameras.

Gate opened

The child said his father was much aware that the police would lock him up once they saw his children with cuts and bruises on their bodies. “The police men struggled and finally forced the gate open. When they reached the house, they didn’t find anyone there. We were hidden in the ceiling board by our father, with himself taking refuge in a wardrobe in the master bedroom,” said the child. He added: “The police searched the house for our father following a tip off that he had been continuously battering us, and indeed he was battering us. For some time, the police failed to locate any of us until they threatened to shoot up [in the ceiling], that was when one of my siblings cried for mercy since the bullets would injure us.” The child said they climbed down with the help of the police and shortly after, their father emerged from the wardrobe and announced his presence. Mr Magezi said the children, along with their father, were put in a police van and driven to the neighboring Old Kampala Police Station to record statements.

Prior to his arrest, the child said their father had pulled them out of school after the school authorities got concerned about the scars and wounds on the children. The interviewed child claimed that during the period when they were out of school, their father locked the two boys in one small dark room and the girl in another room alone. They said orders were issued to them by their father not to make any noise and that a bucket was to that effect provided as their toilet. The child said they went without food the whole day and at night their father would engage them in manual work as everybody else slept. “Since the work was too much for us, our father used to force harsh punishment on us that included whipping us using an electrical wire and wooden baton/sticks and electric shocks. He also made us sleep naked on a cold night grass dew or poured freezing water on our naked bodies,” said one of the children. Adding: “In the absence of the dew, [we were made to do] 20 to 100 tight fist pressure-ups. We would only have one meal after midnight after all work was done. Our father would make us compete in eating and the last to finish would be punished.”

It was upon this backdrop that their father was charged for abusing his children. According to Mr Magezi, two of the children are now being taken care of by Watoto Child Care Ministries, a subsidiary organ of Watoto Church in Kampala. He said the third child, whose biological mother passed on a few years back, is now staying with his maternal relatives in western Uganda. Mr Magezi complained that ever since court ordered the accused to give his defense about five months ago, there has not been any progress on the trial. He wonders what happened. The accused was released on bail and is free out there as the trial drags on.

Legally Speaking

Article 44 (a) of the 1995 Uganda Constitution provides for none derogation from the enjoyment of freedom from torture and cruel inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment. Section 2 of the Prevention and Prohibition of Torture Act 2012 defines torture as any act or omission by which severe pain or suffering whether physical or mental is intentionally inflicted on a person by or at the instigation of or with the consent or acquiescence of any person whether a public official or other person acting in an official or private capacity for such purposes as punishing that person for an act he or she or any other person has committed or planning to commit or intimidating or coercing the person or any other to do or refrain from doing any act..

Section 4 of the same Act criminalizes torture and states that any person who commits torture is on conviction liable to imprisonment for fifteen years or to a fine of three hundred sixty currency points or both.

In this instance for Impartial lawyers to assist:

Step 1 They would advise you to report to the police and also write to designated domestic bodies and commissions to implement the children’s Act cap 59 to prevent violent punishment of children by parents and banning exploitation of children.

Step 2 They would use the law and compel the police to investigate acts of torture and all forms of abuse against children and punish the perpetrators.

Step 3 They would use the law to compel the DPP to prosecute individuals who are allegedly responsible for acts of torture and all sorts of abuse against children and ensure that sentences are commensurate with the serious of the crime.

Article courtesy of The Daily Monitor newspaper and edited by Advocate Vera Nawumbe