Kalangala Police is holding two fishermen for allegedly defiling ten children. The suspects are 55-year-old Joseph Ouma from Bujumba fishing village and 35-year-old Emmanuel Sserwadda, a resident of Banga landing site in Mugoye Sub County.
The suspects were picked up on separate days this week after parents of the defilement victims complained against them during a community policing sensitization meeting at Banga landing site.
Grace Night, the officer in charge of the Kalanga Police Child Protection Unit says that the parents pleaded with Police to arrest the suspects for defiling their daughters, which has scared them from returning to school. Night says that before arresting the duo they took 8 children to Kalangala Health Center IV for a medical examination and found that they were defiled. She explains that all the defiled children aged between 6 and 14 years, have recorded statements pinning the suspects for luring them into sex.
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Joseph Ssenabulya, the officer in charge of Criminal Investigations Kalangala Police Station says that they are holding the suspects as investigations into the crime continue. He says they have forwarded Ouma’s file to Masaka Resident State Attorney for advice. He says that they are planning to take Emmanuel Sserwadda for an HIV test to find out his status before charging him with aggravated defilement.
Resty Namatovu, whose two daughters were defiled says that she is disturbed with the case. She is worried that her two daughters below ten years of age is worried that her daughter may fail to deliver in future because their private parts were ruptured by the defilers. Namatovu wants court to convict the suspects to death by hanging once they are found guilty for ruining the future of their children. The cases of the ten children are just a fraction of the many defilement cases that occur in Kalangala district every month.
Police records show that at least 10 children are defiled in Kalangala district on average every month despite the fact that many cases go unreported. Peter Ssenyanja, the Coordinator Kalangala Education Forum claims defilement is forcing some girls to drop out of school. He points an accusing finger at employees of BIDCO Oil Company for their involvement in rampant defilement in the district.
He says that they are following up two cases in Bujumba primary school and Kinyamira primary, where six children were allegedly defiled by BIDCO employees. He says that they have interviewed several pupils in their clubs who testified that Bidco employees keep chasing them on their way home from school to defile them.
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The management of BIDCO has not yet commented on the accusations against its employee as Joseph Awori, the BIDCO Administrative Manager would neither pick up nor return our calls.
