Africa-Press – Uganda. A student of Makerere University has accused a custodian of Olympia Hostel in Kikoni, a Kampala suburb, of sexually abusing her while she was residing at the hostel.
In an interview with this publication on Monday, the student said the incident took place in June and she later filed a case against him at the Wandegeya Police Station.
“These allegations [that the custodian has been sexually abusing students] have been around for quite some time, many girls have come forward to report but nothing has been done. Unfortunately, I also join the list of many victims who have not got any justice,” she said.
The student said the police sent her to Mulago National Referral Hospital for a medical examination.
According to the medical report, which this publication has seen, the student had a ruptured hymen consistent with a possible rape.
However, since the case was filed almost a month after the alleged rape incident, there was not much evidence to sustain a charge of rape.
Mr Luke Owoyesigire, the Kampala Metropolitan deputy police spokesperson, said the case is still being investigated but the crime scene was tampered with when the victim shifted to a different hostel.
“It is true we investigated that matter. The lady opened up a case of rape at Wandegeya police. She alleges that this gentleman (custodian) got access to her room while she was asleep, raped her and went away. We obtained the statement of the suspect as well as sent the victim for a medical examination,” he said.
He added: “The lady delayed returning the medical examination report and we couldn’t proceed to examine the crime scene without it. So when she returned and we went to review the crime scene, she had unfortunately moved all her property to another hostel.”
When contacted on Monday, the custodian said he was driving. He, however, did not respond to our repeated calls and messages to him later in the day.
Mr Severino Twinobusingye, the lawyer of Olympia Hostel, on Monday evening said the allegations against the custodian are ill intentioned.
What hostel lawyer says
“The girls making these accusations have been procured by competitors in the hostel business to tarnish the name of the hostel. They are the same girls from 2019 and we are planning to take action against them for defamation,” he said.
This is not the first time that custodian has been accused of sexual abuse.
In 2019, several students reported that the custodian had sexually abused them.
This prompted the university guild to put pressure on the management of the hostel to take action against him. The hostel management suspended him, pending further investigation.
A committee was then instituted to validate the accuracy of the rape allegations.
The custodian was, however, acquitted because the victims did not come forward to testify against him.
One of the victims [name withheld], told this publication that most of his victims were scared to speak out since the committee was not objective.
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