UN, Police, Safe-boda in campaign to save women

VIOLENCE|CRIME

KAMPALA - As part of the 16days of activism, the United Nations has joined the Uganda Police Force and Safe boda riders to ensure the safety of women and girls within the transport sector.

The campaign dubbed Safe ride will engage over 300 Safe boda riders and the Police within Kampala to fight against violence against women, sexual harassment and gender inequality, among others in the transport sector.

United Nations Resident Coordinator and UNDP Resident Representative Rosa Malango said the occasion is to help stand in solidarity with survivors and advocates who are working to prevent and end violence against women and girls.

Dr Steven Kasiima, the director of Traffic and Road Safety Directorate

 
Malango said many women and girls experience sexual harassment on the streets, in taxis, work places and public places such as bars.

"Violence has a negative impact on the lives and health of women and girls, it affects the family and the entire community," Malango said.

She noted that violence affects us all including husbands, brothers, sisters, friends and our communities and that we should make no mistakes as violence is a fatality.

 
She noted that the police have a great role to play in assisting survivors of violence, adding: "The culture where we question the victim's credibility instead of holding the perpetrator accountable must stop."

Maureen Atuhaire, the Police head of child and family department noted that defilement and domestic violence were ranked among the leading crimes in 2017 constituting 20% of all crimes reported to Uganda Police Force.

She added that there were 361 cases of death through domestic violence registered.

There were 252,065 crimes reported of which 15,325 related to domestic violence, almost 42cases were being reported per day.

The report indicated 14,985 cases of defilement and 1,335 rape cases.

16,862 cases of sex-related crimes were registered, meaning that about 46 cases were registered daily.

The Dr Steven Kasiima, the director of Traffic and Road Safety Directorate noted that 56% of women and 44% of men aged between 15-49 experience spousal violence.

Meanwhile, 46% of women aged between 15 and 49 report that they are afraid of their current or most recent partner most of the time. He said this is high compared to global average of 35.6% in 2016.

Kasiima urged the Safe boda riders to spread the gospel of a free violence society. He appealed to courts of law to give maximum sentence to the perpetrators of violence for others to learn from.

 
"We should speak up against violence. Let us not die in silence when such offenses are committed on our children, sisters and wives," Kasiima said.

He noted that 16 days of activism should not go unnoticed.

"Girls are very vulnerable when they are walking on the streets. Their bags are snatched always because thugs know that they will not fight back," Kasiima said.

He appealed to the Uganda Police Force to ensure that such cases against women are reduced. "We must double our efforts to ensure these vices are exposed so that we make Kampala, which has the biggest population in the country safe for citizens," Kasiima said.

The UN Women Country Representative Dr. Maxime Houinato, lauded Police and Safeboda for ensuring that cases of violence against women are reported, investigated and perpetrators punished.

Rapa Thomson Ricky, the SafeBoda Co-Founder pledged to ensure that the general public has access to safe transport to their respective places at any time. He said over time they done their job of empowering driver and riders to offer transport services responsibly.