Speaker Among says she survived rape multiple times

NATIONAL | The Speaker of Parliament, Ms Anita Among, has asked all stakeholders to ensure the implementation of all the laws that Parliament passed to protect girls from early marriages and teenage pregnancies.

The Speaker says it is unfortunate that some of the laws passed by Parliament have not been implemented to the letter, hence undermining the intended purpose of passing such laws.

While launching the Uganda Parliamentary Forum to end child marriage and teenage pregnancy, the Speaker challenged all MPs to engage in the sensitisation and mobilisation campaigns against the increasing early marriages and early pregnancies.

The Speaker also used this platform to disclose her tale on how her father refused to educate her and wanted to marry her for wealth.

"I'm from family of 48 children and I'm the last born but I saw all my sister's getting married and I asked my self why my sister's were getting married at an early age instead of concentrating on their books," Ms Among said.

" This situation forced me to run away from home and went and became a house girl and started educating myself from Primary Two to the university level. After I went to my sister's home who was married, the husband also wanted to rape me and I ran away from their home."

The Speaker said after A-Level education, she became a cleaner in Centenary Bank from where her hard work and commitment was noticed and she was rewarded with a cashier's job.

The Speaker also disclosed how one of her relative also arranged someone to rape her.

"Because they had wanted me to go for early marriage, one of my relative organised someone to rape me. Fortunately ,I hit the man and started bleeding and I took off," she said.

Ms Among said the issue of early marriages and teenage pregnancies is real and must be tackled head-on.