P7 candidate aborts to sit for PLE

BY TOM GWEBAYANGA

A 13-year-old P7 candidate in Kamuli district cheated death after she took local herbs to abort a six-month pregnancy so that she can sit for the Primary Leaving Examinations (PLE) due on Monday.

The pupil of Kamuli Township Primary School survived by a whisker after she stealthily drank the herbs on Wednesday night before thick blood started oozing from her private parts on Thursday morning. She was found unconscious in her brother’s house.

Nabirye was saved by a neighbour, who heard her screaming and came to her rescue, only to find her writhing in pain, in a pool of blood. She was rushed to Kamuli Health Care Emergency, where Dr. John Were established she was pregnant and having a miscarriage. Minutes later, the foetus came out.

Her overwhelmed mother, a resident of Buwanume in Nabwigulu sub-county, said she was ignorant about the pregnancy. She had taken her daughter to live with her brother, Alex Ngobi in town to minimise the distance from home to school.

“I had no idea about it and I am shocked,” the 42-year-old mother of eight exclaimed.

On her sick bed, the girl narrated that she conceived in June, but kept it a secret until it became unbearable because of the significant signs, yet PLE was fast approaching.

“I had no alternative. I resolved to abort the pregnancy so that I sit for PLE without any encumbrance,” she said, adding that some people had started making fun of her.

When the District Police Officer in Charge of Home and Child Protection Unit at Kamuli Central Police Station, Richard Kagoda, tasked her to explain who gave her the herbs, Nabirye said she got them from a traditional healer she declined to name.

“I pleaded with him to help me. I had only sh2,000 which I gave him, but we had agreed that I was to pay the balance of sh28,000,” she narrated. However, when tasked to reveal the one responsible for the pregnancy, Nabirye said it was her cousin brother, a S3 student in Jinja Municipality.

Kagoda said a file has been opened as the Police trace the defiler and the traditional healer, still at large.

“We are to charge the healer with attempted murder, while Kitamirike is to face defilement and incest cases,” Kagoda said.

According to Kamuli district CID Officer, Pamela Ajilong, 210 P7 candidates missed their PLE due to pregnancies, besides those whose pregnancies were not identified.

This year, according to the district education officer, Joseph Musoke, over 13,000 pupils have vanished from UPE Schools over unknown reasons.