“We often alert police and local council chairpersons on issues affecting children but they take long to act. In most cases some of these kids have died before seeing justice. Many people see this child suffering but because she is lame, they don’t care. If she wasn’t like this, she would be looking better like her four brothers and two sisters,” Mugambe said.
What then could the father, Nazaria Mukwana, a 42-year-old man, say to save the situation?
“If she was a boy, I would bath her but now that she is a girl I can’t help it because I can’t touch her. There is nothing I can change about that. I didn’t cause her lameness,” Mr Mukwana said.
A police officer at Nagojje Police Post, who asked for anonymity because he is not allowed to speak to the press, said most child abuse cases are not reported because people prefer settling them secretly.
“There are many children suffering. However, we deal with cases that have been brought to our attention. But in most cases, people don’t want to report the issues. We had not heard about it (Nakatekere’s case). Although we don’t have transport to go there now, we are going
to see how we can help,” the officer said.
There have been similar reports from police in the past where parents have mistreated their children because of their status.
For example, while addressing a news briefing recently, Kampala Metropolitan police spokesperson Henry Kalulu said some people have lost values even on things that they cannot change.
“A woman about 30 years-old dumped a baby in Bweyogerere, a Kampala suburb on grounds that this baby doesn’t grow. If he grows, he grows slowly. He is aged nine months. But according to her, the baby grows slowly and has a deformity,” Mr Kalulu said.
Mr Kalulu added that the woman had insisted she will not take back the baby but rather go to prison and serve a sentence instead of “taking the baby who is deformed, can’t grow and is a burden.”
