Masindi: Corruption, betrayal as young girls are defiled

Girls in Masindi district are enslaved into defilement by the corrupt justice system, ignorance and high poverty levels.

Over a thousand girls are registered to be defiled every year and the vice is on an onward spiral.

Officers in Masindi Police station, State attorney’s office are in the spotlight for aiding this continued crime.

Annet Kyomuhendo is a mother of a defilement victim.

Her fourteen-year-old daughter was repeatedly defiled by her neighbor in Kasomoro village Masindi municipality. She has been caught up in the rubble of injustice by state agencies.

Kyomuhendo was coerced to sign a letter dropping charges against the suspect after she was paid some money.

"When we went there, they gave me the paper to sign and gave me the money,” Kyokuhendo said.

She is now living with pain of betrayal, fear and the cry of the injustice inflicted to her by the state attorney and police.

In her quest for justice for her daughter two years ago, she has faced the wrath of corrupt police officers and unbearable legal officers continuously demanding for money.

"She wanted me to buy her a piece of chicken, saying that she was struggling with my case, I had to flip my bag to show that I had no money but she insisted that I was pretending," Kyomuhendo added.

These are accusations against police officers at Masindi police station and the state attorney.

There is another case of a girl who was defiled two times, narrated to us by one of our security sources.

When the case was reported, money was sent to police. At first the police feared to eat the money which totalled to Shs 3.5 million.

Later, the OC CID ate the money together with the senior state attorney.

When they ate this money, the relatives of the boy went to the mother of the girl and told her that she should go and tell state that she has lost interest in the case.

She, too, was given money.  She went and told court she had lost interest in the case.

This is a narrative directly related to case file 58, where Kyomuhendo was caught in the syndicate of corruption.

Kyomuhendo told this reporter that: "It is my aunt that convinced me, the state attorney asked whether that money, (the shs 500,000) wouldn’t haunt me in the future. Wont I get in trouble with such useless money…?"

Masindi district probation office registered 1264 defilement cases in 2021.

Defilement is a capital offence and carries a maximum penalty of life imprisonment.

When we went to the Charles Bwiiso, state attorney's office, the secretary told us he was not in.

Defilement cases are 'killed' for different amounts of money depending on the age of the victim.

For instance, we were told that if a girl is below 13 years (aggravated defilement) one parts with Shs 3 million ands above to 'kill' the case. Those between the ages of 14 to 17, cases are 'killed' for between Shs 1.5 million and Shs 3 million depending on the economic status of the suspect's family.

Meanwhile Bwiiso was arrested by the State House Anti-Corruption Unit on suspicion of soliciting a Shs 3 million brine to kill another defilement case. He is said to have received the money with a police officer.

Bwiiso has since been committed to court.

For Kyomuhendo and many other grieving parents out there the long wait for justice is an unbearable situation.