Tax men crashed my testicles, shattered my school dreams
May 15, 2005
POOR or rich, everyone values children. The joy of having your own babies tumbling about you every time you come back home from a hard day’s work is a fulfilment. But for the 20-year-old Moses Mukisa, this may never be.
By Harriette Onyalla
POOR or rich, everyone values children. The joy of having your own babies tumbling about you every time you come back home from a hard day’s work is a fulfilment. But for the 20-year-old Moses Mukisa, this may never be.
He shifts in his seat as he tries to get a comfortable position to sit. He is conscious of the eyes on him and quickly puts on a brave smile, a sad one.
Everything Mukisa works hard for may just have no meaning by the time he is rolled out of theatre in a few months. He is awaiting another operation on his testis.
Two years ago at Manyangwa trading centre, Gayaza, Mukisa was badly beaten by tax collectors. He was on his way to sell second hand clothes to raise school fees.
The tax collectors in Nangabo sub-county, Wakiso district stopped the pick-up truck he was travelling in along with other traders. The traders who did not have graduated tax tickets jumped off the vehicles and fled into nearby bushes.
Mukisa remained with a few traders, who possessed graduated tax tickets. He was a Senior Two student at St. John’s Secondary School, Gayaza.
Enraged with the run-away traders, the irate tax collectors ignored the identification card from Mukisa’s school. They grabbed him from the top of the truck and beat him up, kicking his private parts until his testes turned into pulp.
When they saw Mukisa was in much pain, they dumped him in their car and later dropped him at a nearby health centre, with sh700 for buying medicine.
At the health centre, he was given first aid and advised to report to the police before getting treatment.
Mukisa was then referred to Mulago Hospital where he spent seven months because of a painful swelling on his scrotum.
“They kicked his private parts damaging both testis. He is in severe pain. One of the testes was damaged beyond repair. It was removed on July 24, 2004,†Mulago Hospital senior physician consultant, Dr Edward Ddumba, said.
Dr Ddumba said the other testis was damaged but only part of it was removed on August 19, 2004.
“The other part was spared because of its importance to the reproductive health of the patient,†he said.
Mukisa is continually in and out of hospital because of searing pain in his lower back, lower limbs and the perineum. He also feels dizzy while walking.
“He can no longer sustain an erection and is likely to become impotent and infertile. The patient will not completely recover from these injuries,†the doctor’s verdict on Mukisa’s condition reads.
With such a bleak diagnosis on his health, Mukisa went into a state of depression and at one point contemplated suicide.
When his peers at school got to know of his condition, he was teased until he changed school. But Mukisa could not let go of his dream to become a doctor. Even while in hospital, he spent time revising his books. His teachers allowed him to sit for exams after the rest of the students had completed theirs.
Mukisa recalls a few years ago when he left his village in Nyanja, Mukono district to come and look for odd jobs to pay his fees.
“Our neighbours in the village made me know that education is important. Their sons in Kampala would drive sleek cars. I asked one of them and he told me I had to go to school. I was a little boy then but it stuck in my mind. Sometimes, I fail to sleep when I think about going to school,†Mukisa says.
Being an only child of a father, who died when he was a baby and a mother, who died when he was in Primary Two, Mukisa has been paying his fees since Primary Two.
Going to school has become difficult because pain can no longer allow him to walk for long distances, which is the only way he can get to school. Doctors have also instructed him to avoid ‘back breaking’ work for at least six years.
A sympathiser directed Mukisa to the Uganda Human Rights Commission (UHRC). But every time he goes to UHRC, he is told to come back later because his case is not yet handled.
In a letter to UHRC though, Nangabo sub-county council administrative officer, David Kyansanku, disagrees with Mulago Hospital senior consultant.
“One of the tax collectors, a friend to Mukisa says he suffers from a sickness that throws him down when he is frightened. Having been seated on a pick up, Mukisa fell and injured his private parts,†Kyansanku writes.
He, however, revealed that there were nine tax collectors in the operation. After the area Member of Parliament, Michael Sitenda Ssebalu intervened, the tax collectors were paraded. On the third parade, Mukisa pointed out the person, who led the beating.
“I didn’t see him on the first parade because all of them were not paraded. But Sitenda Ssebalu insisted that all tax collectors be there for the last parade. He turned up, I pointed him out immediately,†Mukisa says.
I was told he was going to face the law but that never happened. Instead, they have started denying I have ever been beaten.
Mukisa is humiliated by insensitive people, who tease him about his plight. All he wants desperately is to get well quickly so that he does not lose this year out of school. Only the doctors’ advise exerting himself to hard work will make his condition worse. Life for Mukisa is a dilemma! His lips quiver, he is probably going to cry but he smiles, sadly. So sadly it breaks the heart…
Ends
POOR or rich, everyone values children. The joy of having your own babies tumbling about you every time you come back home from a hard day’s work is a fulfilment. But for the 20-year-old Moses Mukisa, this may never be.
He shifts in his seat as he tries to get a comfortable position to sit. He is conscious of the eyes on him and quickly puts on a brave smile, a sad one.
Everything Mukisa works hard for may just have no meaning by the time he is rolled out of theatre in a few months. He is awaiting another operation on his testis.
Two years ago at Manyangwa trading centre, Gayaza, Mukisa was badly beaten by tax collectors. He was on his way to sell second hand clothes to raise school fees.
The tax collectors in Nangabo sub-county, Wakiso district stopped the pick-up truck he was travelling in along with other traders. The traders who did not have graduated tax tickets jumped off the vehicles and fled into nearby bushes.
Mukisa remained with a few traders, who possessed graduated tax tickets. He was a Senior Two student at St. John’s Secondary School, Gayaza.
Enraged with the run-away traders, the irate tax collectors ignored the identification card from Mukisa’s school. They grabbed him from the top of the truck and beat him up, kicking his private parts until his testes turned into pulp.
When they saw Mukisa was in much pain, they dumped him in their car and later dropped him at a nearby health centre, with sh700 for buying medicine.
At the health centre, he was given first aid and advised to report to the police before getting treatment.
Mukisa was then referred to Mulago Hospital where he spent seven months because of a painful swelling on his scrotum.
“They kicked his private parts damaging both testis. He is in severe pain. One of the testes was damaged beyond repair. It was removed on July 24, 2004,†Mulago Hospital senior physician consultant, Dr Edward Ddumba, said.
Dr Ddumba said the other testis was damaged but only part of it was removed on August 19, 2004.
“The other part was spared because of its importance to the reproductive health of the patient,†he said.
Mukisa is continually in and out of hospital because of searing pain in his lower back, lower limbs and the perineum. He also feels dizzy while walking.
“He can no longer sustain an erection and is likely to become impotent and infertile. The patient will not completely recover from these injuries,†the doctor’s verdict on Mukisa’s condition reads.
With such a bleak diagnosis on his health, Mukisa went into a state of depression and at one point contemplated suicide.
When his peers at school got to know of his condition, he was teased until he changed school. But Mukisa could not let go of his dream to become a doctor. Even while in hospital, he spent time revising his books. His teachers allowed him to sit for exams after the rest of the students had completed theirs.
Mukisa recalls a few years ago when he left his village in Nyanja, Mukono district to come and look for odd jobs to pay his fees.
“Our neighbours in the village made me know that education is important. Their sons in Kampala would drive sleek cars. I asked one of them and he told me I had to go to school. I was a little boy then but it stuck in my mind. Sometimes, I fail to sleep when I think about going to school,†Mukisa says.
Being an only child of a father, who died when he was a baby and a mother, who died when he was in Primary Two, Mukisa has been paying his fees since Primary Two.
Going to school has become difficult because pain can no longer allow him to walk for long distances, which is the only way he can get to school. Doctors have also instructed him to avoid ‘back breaking’ work for at least six years.
A sympathiser directed Mukisa to the Uganda Human Rights Commission (UHRC). But every time he goes to UHRC, he is told to come back later because his case is not yet handled.
In a letter to UHRC though, Nangabo sub-county council administrative officer, David Kyansanku, disagrees with Mulago Hospital senior consultant.
“One of the tax collectors, a friend to Mukisa says he suffers from a sickness that throws him down when he is frightened. Having been seated on a pick up, Mukisa fell and injured his private parts,†Kyansanku writes.
He, however, revealed that there were nine tax collectors in the operation. After the area Member of Parliament, Michael Sitenda Ssebalu intervened, the tax collectors were paraded. On the third parade, Mukisa pointed out the person, who led the beating.
“I didn’t see him on the first parade because all of them were not paraded. But Sitenda Ssebalu insisted that all tax collectors be there for the last parade. He turned up, I pointed him out immediately,†Mukisa says.
I was told he was going to face the law but that never happened. Instead, they have started denying I have ever been beaten.
Mukisa is humiliated by insensitive people, who tease him about his plight. All he wants desperately is to get well quickly so that he does not lose this year out of school. Only the doctors’ advise exerting himself to hard work will make his condition worse. Life for Mukisa is a dilemma! His lips quiver, he is probably going to cry but he smiles, sadly. So sadly it breaks the heart…
Ends