Armed Gangs in Kween Forcibly Mutilating Girls
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4 NEW VISION, Monday, January 21, 2019 NATIONAL NEWS Mutilation Abuse Lawlessness Unicef By Betty Amamukirori happening in Kween district. A dark cloud is hanging over Fighting the vice Kween district. Armed gangs FMG was made a crime in have for the past two months Armed gangs in Kween Uganda in 2010. The offence, been terrorising communities under the Prohibition of FGM and are forcefully mutilating Act, attracts a maximum girls. sentence of 10 years for Multiple sources, including committing the act and seven Members of Parliament years for abating it. from the Sebei region, told forcibly mutilating girls Mangusho said districts New Vision yesterday that in Sebei region passed since December 1, last year, ordinances outlawing FMG communities in Kween are and in 2016, they arrested living in fear, watching some of the proponents of helplessly as their daughters Lawrence Cherop FGM, but these were pardoned are dragged out of their homes Mangusho, the Kween on grounds that they were first and subjected to Female County MP, said the time offenders. Genital Mutilation (FGM) situation has been made The local leaders and civil in broad daylight by the worse by a section of society organisations have menacing gang. the elite from the Sebei been engaged in campaigns region, who are openly against FMG. November 30 is Done in broad daylight encouraging Female gazetted as a cultural day to Lawrence Cherop Mangusho, Genital Mutilation through spread anti-FGM messages. the Kween County MP, social media groups, such This year, the event was described the act as a “brutal as the Kopot-Sabiiny delayed and it took place uprising”, whose trigger he and Sebei Development in Bukwo on January 18. does not know. Initiative. “The elite Rebecca Kadaga, the Speaker He said it started as a stealth Sabiiny are promoting of Parliament, was the guest of act done at night, but steadily it, yet they should be honour. progressed to being done the ones leading the FGM has traditionally been in broad daylight under the campaign against it,” he rampant in the districts of watch of everyone, including said. Kapchorwa, Bukwo, Kween, the Police. Nakapiripirit, Moroto and “At first they were doing it at ELITE Amudat. Normally girls are 3:00am, 4:00am and before subjected to FMG at the age of we knew it, they had gathered 12 years. courage and were doing it FUELLING openly at 8:00am,” he said. Dangers of FGM The gangs move in groups Girls in a procession before being mutilated. Courtesy photo FGM Unicef in its 2017 report of about 100 people, wielding revealed that three in every pangas, sticks and other sharp When Police tried to intervene, when everyone is at home. suffered genital mutilation. The sub-county also borders 10 females in these areas instruments, which they use to they charged at them and During the month, activities, Two of the girls were arrested West Pokot in Kenya and the are circumcised. Moroto threaten whoever tries to stop overpowered them,” the including circumcision and for denying undergoing the borders are porous. (52%) registered the highest them, he added, explaining that legislator added. marriages, take place. act. Chelimo said the illiterate proportion, while Kapchorwa the local authorities and Police Another source, who He explained that male “When we took them to communities are taking had the lowest (13%). are watching on helplessly as preferred anonymity said at circumcision takes place only hospital to verify their claims, advantage of the porous border According to the World the gangs brutalise the young one time a female Police officer in even years and before the medics confirmed that to hire circumcisers from Kenya Health Organisation girls. tried to intervene, but the gang FGM was outlawed, female they had been mutilated. So to conduct the outlawed act. (WHO), FGM has physical, “It is so bad. It is like an threatened to circumcise her circumcision could take place we arrested them and their Each surgeon charges between health and psychological uprising and I do not know too. even during odd years. parents. They are in court. The sh74,000 and sh111,000 for consequences on the women. what is causing it. My phone Sources on ground estimated circumciser is still in hiding,” each girl. The consequences include is buzzing. I get calls every day that over 100 girls have been Other districts affected Chelimo said. “The vice had reduced, fear of sexual intercourse, that girls are being forced to brutally mutilated since New Vision has learnt that He said the most affected but I do not know why it is post-traumatic stress disorder, undergo circumcision and that December 1, 2018. other districts in the region are area is Riwo sub-county, which resurrecting,” he said. anxiety, depression, increased people are being threatened Mangusho said the district also affected, though not at the has low levels of education When contacted, the Bukwo risk of cervical cancer, severe with death.. authorities gazetted December same magnitude. and high poverty levels. The District Woman MP, Evelyn bleeding, infections and “It is worse in Kween. The 1 to December 31 as a month Reuben Paul Chelimo, the only primary school available Chemutai, denied knowledge infertility. The act interferes first open act was done near for cultural festivities in Sebei Kongasis County MP, said since is 20km away and there is no of any act of FGM in Bukwo, with the natural function of a the town council headquarters. region because it is a time December 1, nine girls have secondary school. insisting that it is only girl’s body. Museveni directs URA to install cargo scanners at border posts By Henry Sekanjako the aid of scanners. money sector had not been affected by forced to remove after he learned he has finalised plans to construct a and Edward Kayiwa the tax. was frustrating Chinese investors in “campus” that will house all the Telecom companies on the spot “Mobile money has actually gone Tororo. various government agencies in one President Yoweri Museveni has The President also asked URA to up, because I am monitoring it,” He said he had laid a firm foundation place. directed the Uganda Revenue tighten its tax monitoring mechanisms, Museveni said. for integrity at URA during its Doris Akol, the URA Commissioner Authority (URA) to install cargo noting that Uganda is losing billions inception by recruiting people like General, said about sh7.4b, which was scanners at border posts across of shillings in revenue as a result of Eliminate bureaucracy Allen Kagina and Jennifer Musisi. being spent on renting office space the country to avoid tax evasion by telecom companies underdeclaring To increase tax flow, Museveni asked “Get people of integrity, even if for URA in Kampala, will be saved traders. the volume of telephone calls. URA to avoid bureaucratic process they are not learned in taxation, annually, adding that the 22-floor Speaking during the commissioning “There has been a lot of evasion and not to frustrate taxpayers, they will learn. Do not start with building is equipped with the latest of the sh139b skyscraper, the home by telephone companies through especially members of the business professionalism. Professionalism and technology. of URA in Nakawa over the weekend, underdeclaring the telephone calls,” community and investors. use of technology can be learned According to URA, the building Museveni said wearing uniforms he stated, adding that URA relies on “Your job is to facilitate business later, start with integrity, that is where is designed to accommodate about cannot scare away smugglers. what the companies declare. and investment. Never waste the time the problem is,” Museveni stressed. 1,800 employees. “All borders must have scanners, Museveni said he had found a of the businesspeople, telling them The finance state minister, David not uniforms. Do not hide behind solution to the problem by acquiring come back later. They are not begging URA tower Bahati, said the new building will the budget. Tell the finance ministry a system that monitors the calls. He for anything. They are adding to Museveni hailed the tax body for enhance URA’s capacity to collect that you cannot do your work without warned that the telecom companies national wealth,” Museveni said. the construction of a magnificent revenue. scanners,” Museveni said. will be made to pay the taxes, where “This is for our survival and to get building, which he said will save the Bahati said over the years, revenue He revealed how during the bush they have been dodging. our children out of dependency. If Government lots of money. collection has risen from sh5b in 1986 war days, officials at the custom you are not ready to help, go do other He said the Government has to more than sh16 trillion in 2019. helped him smuggle guns into the Mobile money tax things,” the President added. been losing sh96b a year paying country. He pointed out that there are Scoffing at the critics of the mobile Museveni cited one URA rent for central government offices. Read more on URA goods that can only be detected with money tax, Museveni said the mobile commissioner, whom he said he was He revealed that the Government on pages 37-56 4 NEW VISION, Tuesday, January 22, 2019 NATIONAL NEWS Intelligence Upsurge Superstition What is driving FGM in Kween? Police deploys in Kween By Benjamin Mark Sabila Reports say between December 2018 and January 2019 girls and women who have undergone FGM are in the range of 400 in Kween district alone. What has shocked communities and local leaders is the ferocity to fight genital mutilation with which FGM has taken place — in broad daylight and without fear of the authorities.