A 13-year-old child has become the latest victim in a worrying cycle of defilement cases in Kasese district. 

Nelson Tumushime, the Police spokesperson for Rwenzori East, confirmed the reported case on Thursday and said Police have since launched investigations into the alleged crime.

Kennedy Bahabuli, a businessman in Kasese municipality, is the accused person.

Tumushime said Bahabuli was arrested on Tuesday (April 2) after the child’s mother, Scovia Muhindo, and local residents reported the matter to the Police.

“The case at hand is aggravated defilement, which is capital in nature and can attract life imprisonment on conviction,” he said.

Muhindo said her teenage daughter had been suspiciously vanishing from home for three days.

She said she recovered medical tablets and handed them over to Police.

Muhindo quoted the victim as claiming that the suspect had imposed on her a family planning method. It is not clear which technique exactly.

Calvin Baluku, the Nyamwamba division community development officer in Kasese municipality, said the Kasese district probation and welfare officer on Thursday joined child rights experts and Police to trace various scenes of crime the suspect allegedly used to commit the crime.

“The minor has informed us that the suspect had defiled her in Club 30s, Club La Benz Benz and Kenneth’s shop, whose location I don’t know,” said Baluku.

This is happening following a recent revelation by a 16-year-old girl that she is eight months pregnant.

The desperate Senior Two student claimed she was impregnated by a 17-year-old lad studying in a neighbouring school.

According to a 2022 UNFPA report, the Kasese district registered 22,548 teenage pregnancies between 2019 and 2021.

The cases included 7,637 in 2019, 7,319 in 2020 and 7,592 in 2021, ranking Kasese third after Wakiso and Kampala in the vice.

"About 70 defilement suspects have been arrested and committed to Mubuku government prison since this year began,” said Faisal Begumira, the district senior probation and social welfare officer in the Community-Based Services Department.