LIKE THIS: Kyakuwa demonstrates how Besigye allegedly pinned her down before the rape
By Hillary Nsambu, M. Olupot, A. Mugisa and Hillary Kiirya
JOANITA Kyakuwa, the woman who accuses presidential candidate Dr. Col. Kizza Besigye of raping her twice between 1997 and 1998, yesterday told court that she was hospitalised three times for mental problems.
Joanita Kyakuwa also said she has been living at State House Entebbe since 2001, citing threats on her life.
Kyakuwa, who was being cross-examined by Besigye’s lawyer John Matovu, also said she had a four-year-old daughter (Bathsheba) with a city businessman, Nick Wavamunno.
The child was born in December 2001.
The High Court hearing was presided over by Justice J.B. Katutsi.
Kyakuwa said she sought refuge in State House after she was threatened by Besigye, not to reveal anything about her rape ordeal.
Kyakuwa said after a story about the alleged rape came out in The Uganda Confidential newsletter in 2001, she was advised to sue the paper. When she asked Besigye for his opinion, he told her: “I told you not to ever say anything and if you do it something will happen to you.”
She said after the threat her friend, John Musinguzi, advised her to seek protection from State House. Musinguzi helped her meet the President and she has since lived at Nsamizi State House Entebbe, at its expense.
“That time I was seeking protection, medical assistance and maintenance, not to report the case,” she said. The defence had accused her of reporting the case to State House instead of the Police.
She said she reported the matter to the CID headquarters on July 4 2001. The next day a detective woman officer called Florence went to her residence in Entebbe where she recorded a statement.
Kyakuwa, dressed in a white blouse, red trousers and wearing an orange band over her forehead, kept glancing at Besigye in the dock across the room. Besigye most of the time rested his cheek on his arm and occasionally crossed his arms over his chest. Unlike on previous appearances, he did not take notes. He wore a chequered shirt and black trousers.
Kyakuwa contradicted herself on her age, saying she was 28 and in her statement in 2001 she said she was 22, meaning that she would be 26.
“I may have made a mistake but I did not deliberately tell a lie. I was born on 23 December 1977. Maybe I am poor in mathematics,” she said.
Matovu insisted she was telling lies and that the statement was backdated, the reason she forgot to change the age.
Matovu took Kyakuwa to task to explain what he called a discrepancy between her Police statement and her testimony in court. Matovu said Kyakuwa’s statement talked of sexual intercourse with Besigye while she told the court she had sex with him twice only.
She said they had sex only twice, in Luzira and in Bombo.
The witness described to the court the map of the house and how she was lifted and pinned down by Besigye. She said Besigye lifted her to the guest-room, which was open and put her on the bed and lay over her as she struggled to free herself.
“He lifted me, took me to the guest room where he put me on the bed and held my hands with one hand and pulled off my jean shorts and as he pulled off my knickers the string at the side broke. He then separated my legs using his knee,” she said.
She said the shorts were above the knee but not close to the buttocks as stated by the defence lawyer.
Matovu asked the witness to demonstrate how she shouted when she was being lifted and raped. She did it but softly prompting the lawyer to say that the shout was soft and did not show that she was in danger.
She said she stopped shouting after Besigye ordered her to stop, but struggled on. The witness at this stage smiled and the lawyer asked her why she was smiling, saying he thought it was an awful ordeal.
Kyakuwa said she was admitted three times to different hospitals over mental problems that she preferred to call emotional problems.
She denied that she had come to court to pin down Besigye because of the facilitation such as accommodation, food and other benefits from State House. The case comes up for hearing on Friday.
