The case is coming up soon after Police last week released a crime report indicating 534 cases of domestic violence were reported to Police Stations within Luwero district in 2023, ranking it top in domestic violence across the country.
A pregnant woman in Luwero is crying for justice after her
husband removed the doors and windows of their house to force her to go as the district registers the highest cases of domestic violence across the
country.
Fatumah Nambuusi aged 27 years married Abdulkarim Kijjambu
five years ago and they have a four-year-old child together. Nambuusi is also
five months old pregnant for the same man.
The couple have been living in two two-roomed house located in Kiyenje
zone in Luwero town council.
However last year, they developed a misunderstanding
which the husband blamed on disrespect and insults whereas the wife accused him of neglect. On January, 26th January, 2024 Kijjambu
married another woman and brought her into the second room within the two-roomed home.
This didn’t go well with Nambuusi who reported the matter to
the Child and Family Protection Unit at Luwero Central Police Station, but the police officer declined to act. The Unit instead advised Nambuusi to report the matter to the family court.
According to Nambuusi, the husband went ahead to order her to
leave the house and dumped her personal property on the verandah of her parents’
house located in Kasoma zone in Luwero town.
Nambuusi protested the eviction from the home and returned to the house with her property.
But On 24th February 2024 Kijjambu responded by
removing the doors of the house to force Nambuusi to leave the home.
Nambuusi told URN Reporter that she had nowhere to go and
asked the Police to force the husband to reinstate the doors as well as
restrain him from evicting her.
// Cue in: “Bweyalabye nganiddewo…//
Cue out;…enziji ziri awo.”//
On Monday, Nambuusi appealed to Luwero District Probation
Office seeking help which also referred her back to the Police.
Kijjambu told URN Reporter that he doesn’t regret removing
the doors because he wants Nambuusi to first get counseled by her parents to stop
insulting and disrespecting him.
“What I know is that Nambuusi wants my property but no longer loves me," Kijjambu said. "She wants
to grab my house saying she has a kid and is pregnant. I can look after the
children but she shouldn’t hang around my house. Let her go back to her parent's home and we
sort out our differences later.”
John Ojokuna the Luwero District Police Commander promised to
handle the matter.
The case is coming up at the time when Police last week released a crime report indicating 534 cases of domestic violence were reported to Police Stations within the Luwero district in 2023 and ranked it with the highest cases across the country.
According to the report, the cases of domestic violence in the district have been rising
from 106 cases reported in 2019, 114 cases in 2020, 341 cases in 2021 and 501 cases in 2022.
Brenda Nabukenya the Luwero District Woman Member of
Parliament says the district needs a shelter house where women like Nambuusi
can be relocated to till they settle differences with husbands before they kill
each other.
Nabukenya said that even the Probation officers are
overwhelmed with the cases but they have nowhere to refer the victims to till
the parties sort out the differences.
Nabukenya warned that if escalating cases of domestic
violence is not handled, the district is likely to record an increase in cases of
couples killing each other.
// Cue in: “Ekizibu ekiri awo…
Cue out;…ate zisalibwa amagezi.”//
Luwero District Probation Office says they are overwhelmed with cases but are financially constrained to respond to all.
A report by Luwero district Health department indicates
971 people sought treatment in health centers after being injured in Gender
Based Violence in the 2022/23 financial year.
