Uganda: Judge wants death for defilers

 By ANTHONY WESAKA

Stringent sentences including death should be handed to people who are found guilty of defilement, a senior judicial officer has said.

Principal Judge Yorokamu Bamwine says he is irked by judicial officers who handle defilers with ‘soft gloves’ instead of handing them tough sentences that will deter would be defilers.

“We are handing out lenient sentences to defilement convicts; this is not a good signal. We should be even considering death sentences, life sentence or a longer prison sentence ranging from 30-35 years to the convicts,” Mr Bamwine said.

Defilement is having sex with an under-age person who below the consent age of 18 years.

Mr Bamwine who was speaking at the annual performance review workshop on justice for children in Kampala suggested that the judges’ dress code of wearing judicial wigs and robes should be avoided if to attain “total justice for the children.”

He explained that judicial attires sometimes scare and intimidate children during court sessions which makes them withhold important information during the trial of suspects.

According to the Justice for Children Programme Annual Performance Report for the previous year in Kampala, defilement was the commonest crime committed against the children.

Statistics show that 7,690 cases were being investigated, 3,733 suspects taken to court, 4,719 cases still at the Directorate of Public Prosecution.

The report adds that 386 people were convicted for defilement, 44 suspects acquitted while 279 cases were dismissed.

Child neglect was the second most committed crime against children with 1,920 cases being investigated.

Other offences included; child abduction with 224 cases being investigated while the least committed offense against children in the previous year was incest with 20 cases being investigated.

Ms Margaret Mutonyi, the chairperson of Justice for Children urged adults to treat children with dignity because they are vulnerable and totally depend on them.

Source: Daily Monitor (01/10/2012): http://www.monitor.co.ug/News/National/Judge+wants+death+for+defilers/-/688334/1522350/-/xu6jg4z/-/index.html