Africa-Press – Uganda. In Uganda’s Sebei sub-region, reports of gender-based violence continue to soar, but the path to justice is riddled with obstacles, forcing many families to choose between prohibitive costs associated with the formal justice system and taking the law into their own hands.
In this report, we explore how the region is grappling with elusive justice as it grapples with GBV cases driven by culture, alcohol and drug abuse and ignorance among other aggravating factors.
Michael Mazuna, 50, sought justice for his 16-year-old daughter after she was defiled and impregnated by a peer, who then forced her to elope.
Mazuna took the case to court, but despite initial police processing and forwarding to the state attorney, he claims the case hit a snag when the state started asking for endless documents before finally deeming the evident insufficient.
“After all that he said a very bad thing. He said the evidence is not sufficient enough,” Mazuna recalls.
However, the area Resident State Attorney, Sadat Sengendo says “When a case comes, you have to look out for certain aspects…
If they are not present, sometimes they push them back for further investigations till evidence is sufficient.”
Solimo Mumin, 40, faced a similar ordeal.
When his brother defiled a schoolgirl, their family ended up in court. However, they opted to resolve the matter outside the formal justice system due to the prohibitive costs.
“So, we tried to negotiate with the victim’s parents and then we harmonised the situation,” Momin explained.
These are just a glimpse of the numerous gender-based violence (GBV) cases plaguing the Sebei sub-region, a community still struggling to abandon cultural practices like circumcision and female genital mutilation.
Characterised by rampant heavy drinking and drug abuse, early marriages, high poverty levels, long distances to essential amenities like schools, and limited knowledge of key rights, the region sees a high number of cases, including domestic battery, defilement, and rape against vulnerable girls and elderly women.
A local in the area, Solimo Kadri says, “many school girls are defiled because they walk very long distances to school and they end up finding unscrupulous men especially drunkards who abuse them”
The Sipi Regiokn Police Spokesperson, Chesang Fred Mark says “We record about 3 three GBV cases daily but most cases are never reported”
The Kapchorwa Senior Probation Officer, Chepotoyek Tina says, “We registered over 1236 GBV related cases last year alone, and yet even more go unreported, and stay in community”.
These often-capital offenses highlight a dire need for proper justice structures. However, many who engage with the justice system instead resort to taking the law into their own hands. Communities, often hidden behind hills and far from key Justice, Law, and Order Sector (JLOS) offices, decry the exorbitant costs associated with justice.
“When you go to court, at times they delay too much. Because you don’t have enough money to go there every day, people just leave it like that,” said Solimo Kadri one local.
“Everyone wants to win the case—the victim’s side, the accused side… both have a role to play,” Solimo Mumin noted.
In one case, Mazuna a father we spoke you earlier said, “The father to the boy who defiled my daughter sold land for three million shillings to get her arrested. That is really very unfair.”
A female resident added, “When you take your case, you’re told to ‘give something little’, but that’s something people cannot afford.”
Authorities however insists justice is free and blame any charges on either dubious individuals or simply the complex dynamics of justice services in the region.
“They are supposed to give their services free. But at times, victims are subjected to medical examination, which requires police surgeons—who are often far away in Mbale,” police explained.
Resident State Attorney, Sadat Sengendo notes that they operate a zero tolerance to corruption and culprits are often dealt with internally.
The Sebei region is even further disadvantaged by the fact that its top court is a mere Chief Magistrates Court with the nearest high court that handles capital offences which are common in the area cast over 70 kilometers in Mbale.
The region then awaits a session that sits every once in a while, for regional cases to be handled.
The Grade One magistrate at Kapchorwa magistrates court, Fatuma Rashid Wiiwo says, “The High Court of Mbale covers a very big region, its jurisdiction covers all districts in Bgisu and goes as far as Mbale, which leaves so many cases to handle in one month.”
The complexity of forensic procedures, including DNA analysis and sample testing, often frustrates communities unfamiliar with these legal requirements.
The Resident State Attorney, Sadat Sengendo says there many salient aspects that need to be followed. He adds, “You need to confirm that the DNA of the accused matches the samples taken from the victim… but when you don’t handle it properly, you destroy evidence.”
These factors, alongside the protracted time it takes to resolve matters, have driven many locals away from formal courts, back to their communities. Here, they either resort to vigilantism or utilise cultural and local councils for alternative dispute resolution.
Festo Majinjach – Program Coordinator, STI [Endless adjournments often leave many disinterested in cases out of frustration. Even bail frustrates cases when boys now run away]
However, many often end up handling cases of bigger magnitude beyond their jurisdiction.
While they claim the formal justice, system is expensive and grueling, parents are equally faulted for abandoning it in favor of local council arrangements where they can easily be paid off.
This often means selling off their children’s chance at justice at a very low cost, leaving many children grappling with trauma and others forcefully trapped in child marriages.
“They want compensation,” police explained. “In most cases, the parents of the culprit negotiate with the parents of the girl, and money is exchanged.”
“You find a case of aggravated defilement where the victim’s family asks for seven cows to settle it. Once they get the cows, it’s done.”
Authorities add. With this however, the parents tend to be the beneficiaries, but the victim is left out.
Tegress Health Centre III handles justice-related cases, as the nearest police surgeon for forensic tests in rape and defilement cases is also in Mbale.
Dr. Toskin Leonard, the in-charge at the facility, emphasises the need for a stronger referral system between non-JLOS partners like them and the police and judiciary.
This, he believes, would ensure that the many unreported community cases are properly reported and channeled through the justice system, securing justice for victims. Dr. Mwanga Alfred, Assistant DHO, Kapchorwa, echoes this sentiment.
Dr. Toskin Leonard – In Charge, Tegress Health Centre II, “We don’t have a strong referral conversation between us, the police, and the judiciary,” he said.
“We need to bring all stakeholders on board—like the LC3, secondary leadership, and improve sensitisation.”
Under the “Right Here Right Now” initiative, CEHURD has been working to raise community awareness of their rights, aiming to improve access to justice in Sebei’s remote communities.
This initiative has yielded several benefits, particularly improved coordination among justice sector players and the sensitisation of communities on their rights and avenues for redress in case of violations.
The Program Officer for Advocacy at CEHURD, Edith Sifuna says, “We need to engage JLOS actors to support victims of sexual rights violations”. She adds that this is because, “Some communities say they fear these people. We need to create a human face around magistrates and state attorneys.”
Even with increasing efforts to ensure justice is well dispensed, it remains elusive due to the many complex factors at play in the area.
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