NORTH EASTERN MEDIA PEACE INITIATIVE
(NEMPI) MEDIA ORGANIZATION
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KUMI DISTRICT
EASTERN UGANDA
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In Uganda, any girl to become mature enough for marriage must attain eighteen years of age and above according to the law, but a few people honor it.
At this age the girl is expected to have fully grown and her sexual organs matured enough to perform in sexual reproduction where needs be. And also her waist bone is expanded, the ovaries and fallopian tube are fully grown to hold a baby before delivery.
But all these have been defied by our parents, or grand parents who seek bride prices for early marriage as of paramount importance to them than education.
In this way early marriage is defined as the kind of unwanted ceremony to marry off a young girl whose time has not yet come to start a family due to love of bride price and poverty.
It also means that a girl drops out of school without minding of her future in preference to marriage or a bride price following the demands from parents, clan members and relatives. Or else she is forced out of school by demanding parents who wished to marry off their girls at an early age.
Some of them say they would rather eat their bride prices early before they die. And some force their girls into early marriage due to poverty.
It is also accepted due to abject poverty which is biting the nation seriously.
Here, a parent will accept early marriage of his or her daughter in order to satisfy his basic needs in a home, which might not also be enough thus ruining the girls future to study, get a job and earn a living for herself (self sustainability ).
British colonialists or Uganda’s former rulers had put the right age (age of consent) for a girl to mature for marriage at fourteen years. But currently it is amended as a new law to stand at eighteen years of age.
A teacher of Soroti district primary school in Eastern Uganda Mrs. Akello says the right age for marriage should stand at twenty-five years soon after the girl has completed ordinary level education and done another course for the next two years. Then she would be capable of marrying and become independent at her own home.
She argues that this age of consent to maturity and marriage has always been disputed by the citizens as not applicable. Mrs. Akello continues to argue that this age is not applicable in villages of Uganda but is right for town dwellers which should be adopted by the state.
For example in Amuria district, early marriage from Kapelebyong sub county has taken a new twist where the marriage ceremonies to be performed is conducted in the bush due to fear of the law (police) crack down on early marriage participants.
“People now marry off their girls in the nearby bushes due to fear of the police arrests. They conduct marriages separately to avoid the law.
When police come in, they disguise to be at a burial ceremony whereas it’s a marriage event,” Joseph Opio who is sub county chief of Kapelebyong said.
Opio said that when police comes, the local councilors presiding over the marriage ceremony run away from the scene of marriage of under aged girl leaving the arresting officers stranded. This happens only on sighting the police officers on duty.
He added that they marry off their young girls at a low bride price. While others say they would die before benefiting from their unmarried girls. On the other hand people now attach value to marriage. Others also say their girls might also die of HIV-AIDS.
For example a low bride price could cost one, a small cow with two – hundred thousand shillings, a packet of salt, a kilo sugar, a jerry can of cooking oil and a tin of crude waragi, Opio said. Others take only one cow and accept to release the bride (girl). Meanwhile others accept part pay and on credit.
Whereas Katakwi district family protection Unit officer for the police, Asero Florence, complains that many young girls married off do not prefer family planning due to fears of catching diseases, but did not say which way.
Aero added that marriage in Katakwi now takes place in the market place where they are offered the cows as a bride price to take home without notice of the police.
Whereas the girl goes on her other way or direction to where their ends would meet with her said husband. One person, a mother, says it is difficult to apprehend those violating this law because they are extra careful.
On the other hand, there is conflict with the law on issues of age of consent and early marriage. Despite the tough laws of Uganda, people don’t care they go on marrying. They go on marrying young girls below the age of consent that is eighteen years to fourteen which was preferred by the colonialists of the colonialists.
For example eleven- year- old girl produced a child in West Nile district of Nebbi at Paidha sub-county, unfortunately police couldn’t act correctly because she didn’t manage to identify who pregnated her leaving every body amazed.
And another produced a baby at the age of thirteen years in Western Uganda.
This means there is conflict with the law and the citizens are not law abiding where something could be done by the government to avert it .
Family protection unit officer for Soroti police station Assistant superintendant Florence Adongo states that having sex with a girl less than eighteen years of age is an offence of defilement against the law of Uganda according to the constitution.
Adong says that defilement case is now amended as a new law where one can be imprisoned for life when found guilty.
For aggravated defilement the sentence is to suffer death when caught in the act.
She added that there is also a category of defilement of a girl above sixteen years but below eighteen years i.e. middle aged girl.
In this way when caught you may be sentenced to seven years in prison. She cautioned on early marriage.
“I blame the issues of defilement or early marriage on drunkenness, wizardry and poverty”, Assistant Superintendant of police (ASP) Adong says.
However Otim William, a police court orderly working in Kumi district Magisterial area says that no culprit has ever been prosecuted, sentenced to death for the offence of aggravated defilement.
“My friend Mr. reporter, I have never seen any suspect here in Kumi sentenced to death for this offence.
Neither has anybody been hanged nor killed by firing squad yet the case (offence) is very serious, Otim recalled.
Otim went on saying that the judiciary and the police were working well to see to it that the offenders were prosecuted but the parents spoil everything by negotiating outside court with the culprits over the allegations.
“They keep on corroborating with the accomplices until the case is thrown out of court or dismissed,” the court orderly said.
Martin Kiiza, Acting Secretary general National Council for Children (NCC) in Uganda calls upon every baled body to protect our children so as to allow them go to school, remain there and complete school cycle.
“Let’s make this World we are living in fit for children,” he says.
From the Ministry of Health in Uganda, the Programme Manager Aids Control Programme (ACP) Dr. Zainab Akol calls upon all Ugandans to stop early marriage so that cases of HIV/Aids infection in children reduce.
“Do not infect innocent children with HIV/Aids. Anybody caught in early marriage which will lead to HIV/Aids infection of our children, will be severely punished. It is not our work only to protect and manage our children against early marriage but also the role of journalists to do so”, Dr. Akol says.
By writing this article for the Guardian, the question of early marriage and age of consent in Uganda remains un answered but it is put under control.
According to Benson Ekalam Probation and Social welfare Officer Soroti says that early marriage is on the increase in Teso sub-region due to increase in poverty.
“This is where a person cannot manage to raise funds for a family or food security put in place but resorts to marrying off a girl child in exchange for food,”.
Early marriage is also on the increase due to low level of education, clan taboos and lack of to serious sensitization of the citizens on the dangers of early marriage and defilement”, Ekalam said.
For example early marriage may cause a girl to abort, die, or experience sexually transmitted diseases STD’s or any other related problems. “The girl’s future is at stake if it is not controlled,” he said.
He said that in Soroti district alone cases of early marriage reported each month stands at 70%.
“In Lango sub-region in North Uganda any girl who is not schooling is married off as early as at the age of thirteen and sixteen years and there is no case to answer according to their culture.
The worst effect of Ugandan girl age of consent is insurgency where parents feel that their daughters should be married off early so that they benefit from their bride prices before they die.
Others believe they should earn from their daughters first before they die or sell them off to hungry husbands as their property without any condition.
Another challenge is poverty where the parent fails to raise school fees for continuous education of his or her girl child. By doing so they end up terminating their daughter’s education.
Instead they prefer early marriage to education.
While others are lack of self control, engaging in early sex which leads to early marriage.
And also lack of determination, self esteem plus parental care.
Failure to honor religious teachings such as committing fornication and adultery.
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