By John Semakula
and Paddy Nsobya

YUSUF Sokolo, 60, hacked his first wife Mwajuma Namatovu to death in 2006. He was arrested and later sentenced to life imprisonment, leaving his 18 children to fend for themselves.

Hamuza Mbuubi, the eldest son who was aged 19-years at the time of the incident, became the head of the family. He mobilised fees and made sure that they had clothes and fed well.

But Mbuubi had no permanent job and his income was unstable. As a result, 13 of his siblings dropped out of school. At the time of the murder, Sokolo had five wives, but when he was arrested for the murder of one, three of them abandoned the children and returned to their parents’ homes.

Mbuubi, who was not at home on the fateful night of September 24, 2006, feels so hurt whenever he recalls the incident and the responsibility he was left with.

The family is now living in abject poverty on Namutya village, Busaana sub-county in Kayunga disitrict.

To try and make ends meet, the family is involved in subsistence farming. Last season, they cultivated maize. Mbuubi’s plan was to use the income from the harvest to pay fees for his siblings, but maize prices went down sharply from sh600 a kilo to sh100. The income that was generated was, therefore, not enough to serve the purpose for which the maize had been cultivated.

Before he was arrested, Sokolo was a successful farmer. He owned two-and-a-half acres of coffee, a banana plantation and five cows. He grew a variety of crops with his wives and children that sustained the family and paid school fees.

But now, the earth can no longer sustain the family. The coffee was struck by wilt, which destroyed the plantation, four cows died and worst of all, encroachers have started claiming portions of the family’s land.

Mbuubi says only the children who were in P.7 remained in school.

Moreover, Mbuubi who would have toiled to provide for the family, was operated on just after his father’s arrest, was warned against excessive physical exertion.

Growth in the family has since retarded. The little money their father had saved was used in unsuccessful attempts to bail him out of prison.

The family is in God’s hands. Mbuubi says they now depends on Good Samaritans who give them clothes, school fees and food. “I sought assistance from the office of the district education officer of Kayunga to have my siblings remain in school without paying fees, in vain. “I also consulted the LC1 chairperson, George William Isakwa and got a little help,” he said. “He promised to solve the land wrangles.”

In Uganda, many children whose parents are incarcerated are left helpless. The same happens to victims of defilement who fall pregnant. After the successful incarceration of the suspects, nobody takes care of the children or the victims in case of defilement.

Most of the victims resort to early marriages for survival.
Justice Joshua Kisawuzi says the judiciary is of little help to such children. “In criminal law we deal with the parties involved in the crime, not the victims,” he said. “But that is a serious social problem which must be addressed by the social workers and the concerned ministry,” he said.

Kisawuzi says even in instances where a woman is sent to prison with a child who is breastfeeding, it is the Prisons authorities who decide on what to do with the child.

“The judiciary has little to do. But in some incidences, court may be lenient to convicts who have family responsibilities. Before a sentence is delivered, the judge or magistrate asks the convict to say something and those who plead for lenience because of family responsibilities may be given lighter punishments.”

Parliament cannot do much about this, but Youth MP Mariam Nalubega proposes that children in such situations be assisted by LCs if they do not have close relatives to take care of them.

Police officers can also assist the victims. Apollo Kyangungu, the officer in charge of Seeta Police Station in Mukono, says if he carries out arrests involving parents, he makes sure that the children are left in the hands of relatives or are handed over to NGOs. “I have a link with the Watoto group and I hand over to it most of the children who fall under that category.”

The gender, labour and social development minister, Gabriel Opio, says they cater for such children under the Orphans and Other Vulnerable Children’s Programme, operational in every district.

Opio adds that the programme is managed by a youth leader and caters for children 16 years and below. There are many NGOs that help children in this category, he also observes.

“USAID funds NGOs which offer help to such children. Government’s role is to support the NGOs.”