Sold into sex by my own mother

Last month, a mother was detained after her daughter accused her of arranging sexual partners for her, Gloria Nakajubi, brings you how it went on unabated 

 

Every child deserves to feel secure, loved and appreciated at home, but this was never the case for this 14-year-old girl in Primary Seven. The soft hands of compassion and love expected from a mother became the hands of brutality. 

 

The girl, who has never experienced the true love of her mother, spent her early years with her grandmother and only came to stay with her mother when she was eight. But instead of the mother making up for the lost time she made her go through the worst experience of her life.

 

She narrates her stories with tears flowing down her cheeks. 

Below is her story. 

 

First part of life

I grew up with my paternal grandmother who told me my mother had left me after a misunderstanding with my father. My grandmother then fed me on cow milk until I could eat solid food. 

My mother never came to see me during the time I was in the village with my grandmother and I used to wonder whether she was alive or grandmother just did not want to tell me that my mother was dead. When I was eight, my mother came for me to study in the city. I never stayed with my father, but I would go and visit him every weekend, since we lived in the same area. When my father died last year, my elder sisters and I moved into the small house he had built in Luzira. I am not sure who their fathers were. One is in secondary school and the other dropped out of school when she got pregnant.

 

I never once felt free with my mother. She always found fault in everything I did. I did all the chores assigned to me, but she would still find something over which to quarrel and beat me up. Together with my sister Barbara who is in secondary school, they would hold me to the ground and beat me until they got exhausted.

 

I have always done well in school, but every time she gave me money for school fees, she complained that I was wasting her money since I am stupid. When teachers would request that she attends parents’ meeting at school, she always refused, saying she had not time to waste.

 

During second term, she started getting money from men who would demand to have sex with me. They would say they had already paid my mother for the service. 

 

The first incident happened when I was returning from school. It is quite a distance from school to home and by the time I would get home, it would be getting dark. 

 

When I had almost reached home, a tall man who I had never seen before stopped me and told me he had made plans with my mother. I did not understand what he meant, so I continued on my way, but he followed me. 

 

I entered the house and found Barbara and my mother seated. They saw the man behind me and invited him in. My mother and sister walked out, leaving me there with the stranger. I tried to fight, but the man locked the door, grabbed me, threw me on my mother’s bed and raped me. He left me there crying, but when my mother and sister walked back in, they just ignored me.

 

I kept wondering why my mother could do that, but I was too scared to even ask about it. 

The next time it happened, I was coming back from school. This man looked familiar so I thought he was my mother’s friend. But as I knelt down to greet him, my mother walked out and locked the door. As I struggled, he threw me against the bed, my head hit the bed post and I lost consciousness. 

 

When I recovered, there was a lot of pain in my private parts. I could not even walk, but my mother was not bothered.

The next time my mother was not at home. It was a Saturday morning and I was in the bathroom bathing. My sister was in the house. I heard her speak with someone whom I thought was one of our neighbours. 

 

Suddenly, I heard someone pushing the bathroom door. I was naked and helpless. I tried to call my sister, but in vain. This man insisted that I had to pay him, but when I shouted really loud he ran out. But he was not done. He came back that evening and as had been the case before, my mother and sister just walked out and he had his way.

 

After that incident, I told her I was going to tell my teacher about it: “That is when I will kill you because I am already fed up of a useless child like you. I am trying to get money for you here and you are talking of reporting me?” she asked. 

 

After a counselling session at their school on children’s rights, the young girl confided in her class teacher. Together with the school headmistress, the matter was reported to the Police. The girl’s mother and her sister were then arrested and remanded to Luzira prison.  

 

The young girl is now in a teenage rehabilitation centre. Her one prayer was that her mother would love her like she did her other sisters, but her prayer remains unanswered. She never wants to go back home again.

 

Ruth Nabunya has been sent back on remand to Luzira prison up to August 30.

The state prosecutor at the Nakawa court, Joseph Bayige, revealed that the magistrate presiding over the case was unwell and, therefore, the hearing could not proceed.

 

“We had come prepared with all the remaining prosecution witnesses and had expected all of them to give their testimonies today, but since the magistrate could not make it, we have to wait for the next date of hearing,” Bayige said.

 

When asked how long he expects this whole process to take, Bayige said they have given the matter the necessary attention and expect judgment as soon as possible. He added that together with the Police, they are trying to get the other accomplices to the crime, especially the men who defiled the victim. 

 

The mother, however, looked so frail and weak and was complaining of body pain when she appeared in court on Friday, although, she says she is getting treatment from prison.

 

The victim was taken over by the State and is in a rehabilitation centre. 

 

 

3...by the time she chose to speak to her teachers about the abuses, she had been raped/defiled more than three times with the knowledge of her mother and sister 

 

8-...the age she was when she first met her mother, who had left her in the village with her paternal grandmother

 

14...Today she is 14 years old and has been taken over by the Government of Uganda