City Has Highest Abuse Cases

By Josephine Maseruka A children's advocacy group has ranked Kampala as the district with the highest cases of child abuse totalling 776 out of 1,153 cases reported to the Police family Protection Unit from 10 districts last year. The African Network for Prevention and Protection Against Child Abuse and Neglect (ANPPCAN) said Kampala also had the highest number of defilement cases totalling 147 of the 334 reported to police while Masaka was second with 67 cases. Defilement constituted 33.3% of the total child abuse cases reported. Deo Iga, the ANPPCAN programme coordinator, said in a five-page report on child abuse in Uganda that the report merely gave an insight into the trends of child abuse and neglect but did not show the real magnitude of the problem since the information was limited to police, High Court and Mulago Medical Social Work department. The report showed that the highest figure of 547 (58%) cases were of child neglect, constituting refusal or failure to provide for children's basic needs. Other forms of abuse and neglect included physical abuse (7.5%), child desertion (0.6%) and indecent assault (0.5%). Ends