UGANDA: Jailed girl to be forced into marriageDecember 6th 2008 Five days after she was allegedly defiled and later illegally detained at Naguru children’s remand home, the 13-year-old Ethiopian refugee is being forced into marriage by the elders of the Oromo community. Saturday Monitor broke the story two weeks ago that the girl (names withheld), a victim of defilement was instead jailed at the instigation of her alleged tormentors. Following further investigations, Saturday Monitor can now reveal that this girl, who according to Police records, was defiled on July 14, while on her way from school has since been forced into an arranged marriage at the advice of 15 elders of the Oromo community, an association that unites all the Ethiopian refugees leaving in Kampala. This means that once the girl is released from detention, she will end up in the hands of a man who defiled her. According to documents of the match-making ceremony obtained by Saturday Monitor and have since been filed at the Directorate of Public Prosecution’s office, the girl’s family entered into an agreement with the family of her defiler to marry them off. This is because, according to the Ethiopian culture, once a girl has sex with a man, she is supposed to get married to him. The documents show that elders Mr Aman Ali, Mr Yonas Chinkiso, Mr Lencho Nabi and the girl’s uncles Hussein Wotiye, Edao Hussein and Adam Wotiye attended the ceremony. At least $500 (Shs1 million), two crates of soda plus 2 blankets were given to the girl’s parents as the practice is in the Oromo tradition. The ceremony was meant to harmonise the relationship between the two feuding families. Mr Wotiye, has made a statement at Old Kampala Station that the community would settle the defilement case out of court which he denied making. In the statement, under file number CRB 1660/ 08, Mr Wotiye stated, “I had made a statement here of the defilement of my daughter by Jamal Gamado. I hereby state that we the Ethiopian community here in Kampala regret the act of our children and have decided to resolve the matter out of court since we are refugees.” “I personally have no interest in further pursuing the case to higher levels and I request the authorities to release the boy,” the statement reads in part. Mr Dejene Bikila, the chairman of the Oromo community, said it is very absurd that the little girl is in prison. “We tried to settle the matter out of court but the two families were so much into feud,” Mr Bikila said. “I also heard about the match making ceremony but they are not part of my team. Besides I’m not a Muslim so I was not part of the ceremony,” he added. The girl is still detained for alleged ‘simple defilement’ an offence which is not provided for in the Penal Code Act. The State Minister for Child Affairs, Mr James Kinobe, explained that although the government has drafted a proposal to punish minors (girl and boy) for engaging in sex, Parliament is yet to enact it into law. “It was very wrong to lock up the girl because the proposal that both minors should always be punished is not yet law,” Mr Kinobe said. Efforts to get a comment from the Attorney General’s office were unproductive as none of the ministers wanted to contradict with the magistrate who charged the girl under an unknown law. The documents also indicate that one of the conditions for marrying off the girl was that her father"in-law would pay her fees if she wants to continue studying. Source: Daily Monitor 6 December 2008 |