Rape at school: Ministry finds evidence

Dec 02, 2019

Alex Kakooza, the education ministry’s permanent secretary, confirmed on Friday that his team found a lot of irregularities and cases of sexual abuse of students by the director.

Alot of evidence implicating Asadu Wamala, the director of Wamala Mixed Secondary School in the claims of defilement and sexual assault, has been found.

Wamala was arrested on Thursday following accusations that he defiled over six students.

Alex Kakooza, the education ministry's permanent secretary, confirmed on Friday that his team found alot of irregularities and cases of sexual abuse of students by the director.

He noted that the ministry has asked the school administration to explain what exactly happened before they take any step.

Ismail Mulindwa, the director of basic education in the ministry, noted that Wamala's case was criminal in nature and that they were waiting to hear from other government agencies before making a final decision.

"The only challenge is that Wamala is in the private sector. Had he been a government teacher, we would have interdicted him immediately. Nevertheless, we can still appoint a statutory manager to take over his school," Mulindwa said.

He noted that the evidence against Wamala was overwhelming because most students had pinned him.

"The biggest challenge we faced in the past is that whenever such allegations were made, the victims hardly came out," Mulindwa stated.

He further noted that closing down the school was not an option because one man's action could disadvantage other beneficiaries.

HOW HE WAS ARRESTED
On Thursday evening, a joint security team comprising a tracking team from the Chieftaincy of Military

 Intelligence and detectives from the Criminal Investigations Directorate (CID) arrested Wamala from Luwero, where he was reportedly hiding.

Wamala vanished from his home in Buwali, Nsangi sub-county following a Police raid. However, a neighbour, who spoke to Saturday Vision, accused the Police of offering the fugitive director protection. He added that Wamala had been seen on Saturday evening with Police officers.

"The officers from Nsangi Police Station are his friends. They were here on Saturday night and even moved with him. We suspect they might have tipped him before they came in to effect the arrest," a neighbour told Saturday Vision.

Katonga Regional Police spokesman Joseph Turya said the team from Katonga did not participate in Wamala's arrest.

An operative who participated in the arrest told Saturday Vision that Wamala switched off all his known telephone contacts, prompting them to arrest some of his family members on Monday.

"It was only after there arrest that the relatives disclosed that Wamala was hiding at the home of Mohammed Abubaker, his brother and sub-county chairperson of Kikyusa. The security operatives later handed Wamala over to the Police.

Last week, a team from State House visited the school and

 recorded statements from the victims and parents.

Sources from the State House team noted that there preliminary report about the defilement incident indicated that Police officers and the Resident State Attorney (RSA), who handled the file bungled up the investigations.

The report, Saturday Vision, has learnt, points an accusing finger at the officials who initially handled the defilement case and recorded a statement and the RSA, who advised that the charges be dropped from defilement to indecent assault.

State House also indicated that money could have changed hands.

The file has since been recalled to the CID headquarters and fresh defilement charges slapped against Wamala.

The issue of sexual abuse at Wamala Mixed School is now a subject of an investigation by different security teams after President Yoweri Museveni last week protested the manner in which Wamala was released by the Mpigi Magistrate.

While releasing the school director, the Mpigi magistrate, Maureen Mukayo, noted that the accused had a constitutional right to apply for bail.

Wamala was released on a sh200,000 cash bail.

CID TAKES ON CASE
CID spokesperson Charles Twine confirmed that CID was now handling the matter and that they had preferred fresh charges against Wamala.

"We have submitted the file to the resident state attorney," Twino noted.

He said the medical examination on one of the girls, who is 16 years old, confirmed she had been defiled.

Police had also recorded statements from other victims aged between 14 to 17 years, who accused 46-year-old Wamala of accessing the girls' dormitory, where he picked girls to take to his house. They alleged that he would sometimes sneak them out of school to Kampala for sexual orgies. He also reportedly sexually abused the girls in classes, the school field, and staffroom, among other places.

One of the victims told Saturday Vision that Wamala called her into the staffroom and accused her of having a boyfriend and that he was going to expel her from school.

"I told him the allegations were not true and than he said in order for him to forgive me, I should sleep with him. I told him I was in my periods, but he insisted that I remove my panty so that he could see the state of my menstrual period. He than told me that it was not heavy and that we could sleep together and that he was not going to hurt me.

"When I rejected him, he unzipped his trousers and placed his genitals in my hands and asked me to fondle them," she said.

The victim noted that shortly after she had gone back to the dormitory, the director sent one of his workers to pick her.

"The matron told me to respond to the director's call, but I told her what he had subjected me to earlier. I went to his house that night and he asked me to sit on his mattress and demanded again that I massage his private parts. He than raped me and asked me to leave his house at about 3:00 am," the victim said.

She said early this month, Wamala asked her to accompany him to Kampala so that they could hang out together, but she declined and instead called her auntie.

The guard at the school, Vincent Okoth, who has since lost his job and is the one who gave one of the girls a phone to call her parents, noted that in one of the cases, Wamala picked three girls from the dormitory and moved with them around the school from 5:00 pm to 7:00 pm.

"I did not know what they were talking about, but I, later on, learnt that he told one of them that he wanted to see her at around 9:00 pm that same night. He told her to dress up so that they go to Kampala, where they would spend a night," Okoth said.

Okoth noted that the school director had allegedly been using the girls, but they were too scared to report the matter to the Police.

"He would pick the girls at night and take them to his rented house outside the school. In some cases, he would even walk into the girls' dormitory at 1:00 am and pick out any girl to have sex with," Okoth said.

He also noted that on certain occasions, Wamala would find him guarding at night and relieve him of his duties so that he could have access to the girls' dormitory.

He also alleged that sometimes Wamala would pick girls and take them to the classrooms at night for sex.

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