Ever increasing  cases of domestic violence a cause for worry, says government

The Ministry of Gender, Labour and Social Development has expressed concern over the ever increasing  cases of sexual and gender based violence in the country that it said are a cause for everyone.

“Today we are seeing increasing sexual violence. In 2016, according to the recently launched national survey on gender based violence in Uganda by UBOS was standing at 21% but today it is at 36%. That is a very big increase with in just eight years from 21% to 36%. This tells a lot about Uganda’s population,” noted Angela Nakafeero ,  the Commissioner in charge of  Gender and Women Affairs in the Ministry of Gender.

Nakafeero was on Friday speaking during the opening ceremony of the stakeholder consultative workshop on sexual and gender based violence in Uganda held at Hotel Africana in Kampala.

The recently released police annual crime report indicated that domestic violence was among the top crimes committed in 2021.

The report indicated that 17533 cases of domestic violence were reported in 2021 and among the causes, police pointed at disputes over family property, failure to provide for families, drug and alcohol abuse and infidelity.

Speaking on Friday, Gender Ministry official said these ever increasing numbers of domestic violence cases are a cause for worry.

“It is not surprising that we are crying of child marriages, we still have female genital mutilation. It is a reflection of who we are. We are violent and culture has made it even worse for us. Work related violence is currently at 86%.  Gender based violence is shifting from homes and communities to our workplaces. “

“Gender based violence Uganda is ever increasing but also dynamic. Whereas we managed to reduce physical violence, other forms of violence have increased. The task ahead of us is very huge.”

Change in approach

Former EALA MP, Dorah Byamukama said whereas there are so many enabling laws aimed at dealing with sexual violence, not so much has been achieved.

She however noted that a new approach has introduced to tackle the problem.

“We are still registering many cases of sexual violence and during the times of Covid, it became rampant. One thing we are working on is prevention. What the International Conference on the Great Lakes Region Regional Training Facility(ICGLR-RTF) has been using is the social ecological model to address the issue . This starts with the individual, relations, community and society at large,”Byamukama said.

“Now we are considering the holistic modal approach in a form of four legged chair with aspects of medical, legal aspect, psychosocial and the social economic aspect.”

Byamukama said the need to change approach was necessitated by the failure of efforts to prevent the domestic violence cases.

“We have realized that prevention is not enough but we need to continue with it since everything begins with the individual and how they were brought up and how they behave. For example, when one is raped, they run to a clinic but we want all these to be under a one stop centre. That all services like medical, police counseling, legal advice are in one place.”

She explained that the one stop centres will be located in each country or district, adding that they can be found at medical facilities of police stations.

“We don’t want to see the victim run to medical facility, then police, lawyer and also needing psychosocial counseling. The issue of trauma also needs to be considered highly. We want the one stop centres to provide these services.”

According to Dr.Janviere Ndirahisha, the regional director for ICGLR-RTF, they will continue training stakeholders on how to deal with domestic violence.

“Our mandate as RTF is to train and equip stakeholders with skills to effectively promote accountability and fight impunity for sexual and gender- based violence; generate knowledge about the challenges of sexual and gender-based violence; and sensitize stakeholders to change stereotypes and attitudes from marginalization to empowerment of women, girls, men and boys to live in dignity respect and freedom at all times and in all situations,”Dr.Ndirahisha said.

She expressed happiness that the Ministry of Gender had accepted to  roll out the integrated model on combating sexual gender based violence.