Kazigo murder: An indictment against society?
I mourn for Caroline N. Kazigo who, after years of intense abuse, may perhaps be inclined to believe that the words - husband and love - are a contradiction, who must hold harrowing memories of her children’s many years of excruciating pain and who has now lost the opportunity to mother her son -
I mourn for Caroline N. Kazigo who, after years of intense abuse, may perhaps be inclined to believe that the words - husband and love - are a contradiction, who must hold harrowing memories of her children’s many years of excruciating pain and who has now lost the opportunity to mother her son - your pain must be beyond anything I can comprehend.
I mourn for Kizito Mulumba, who I guess lost his childhood long before his time, who perhaps will never fathom the concept of the “love of a father†and has now lost a clean criminal record
I mourn for Mulumba’s siblings who ……
As I read the article entitled “Why was Kazigo killed?†in Sunday Vision of May 14, 2006, several questions crossed my mind:
l What is and where is justice?
l What is the role of the Criminal Justice System?
l Who has been the real victim of violence which ended Dr Kazigo’s life?
l Would the Kazigo family tragedy have occurred if the family lived in Uganda and not in the U.S?
I am certain that some people may be asking the question: if the abuse was as horrendous as is being portrayed, why did Caroline Kazigo never leave the marriage? Nakizito Kazigo, a daughter of the family partly answers that question thus: “It was not only the threat of financial insolvency if she left my father (a notion he nurtured in my house-prisoner mother) but also the fear of physical harm.†The answer is in line with research carried out globally and which consistently reveals the fact of economic dependency, a fact aptly described way back in 1982 by Del thus:
Women are abused in many ways over and above physical violence. They are abused by their spouses as well as by the double standards of patriarchal society which prepares most women for nothing other than marriage, and thereby makes women economically dependent on their husbands.
More than 10 years ago (1992-93) I carried out research in Uganda’s prisons and focused on women who over several years had been subjected to physical and other forms of abuse by their husbands. These women eventually killed their abusive husbands. Asked why they had never left the abusive relationships, many of them said:
I had nowhere to go to. My father died and the land became my brother’s. My mother had no say in the property so she could not give me a piece to cultivate. … Yet I was too old to re-marry.
A review of literature recently coming out of American society still indicates that economics is a major consideration for many women to remain in abusive relationships.
Nakazigo’s answer also tallies with another reason why women never leave abusive relationships: the fear of injury from the abusive husband once she attempts to leave. Way back in 1980, Jones while writing on killing of husbands by American and British women asserted that the question why a battered woman does not leave the abusive relationship may in some circumstances, not be as important as the question “Why don’t the men let the women go?†International studies have shown that a woman’s decision to end the relationship is the event most likely to end in her murder. Research also found that perpetrators develop an obsession when the victims try to leave. They intensify physical violence and threats of homicide and suicide (Ganley, 1995). In America, it has been reported that battered women seek medical attention more often after separation: About 75% of the visits to emergency rooms occur after separation. Consequently, women stay in abusive relationships for fear of their safety if they left, they are often threatened with more serious abuse if they attempt to leave (Browne, 1997).
According to the New Vision article, the Kazigo boys had many times tried to call for help as teenagers but nothing was done. In the words of Nakazigo:
“Without evidence, without hospital reports of the severity of the damage, without multiple police calls to a house, prosecution of domestic violence is difficult. I guess this is why the local police ignored my brothers.â€
It is appalling that any society should consider what the Kazigo children went through as too trivial to warrant action by the state. Where were the agents of the Criminal Justice System when:
l John was hospitalized for a week after being hit on the head by his father and had to take anti-seizure medication for months thereafter?
l One of the Kazigo girls was thrown through a window?
l One of the girls was pushed through a glass window and then had her wrists sewn up without anesthesia?
The failure by the justice system (read society) to take action against family abuse is poignantly expressed by Michael Kaufman in the following statement:
If it were between countries, we would call it a war. If it were a disease we would call it an epidemic. If it were an oil spill, we would call it a disaster. But it is happening to women, and it is just an everyday affair. It is violence against women, or simply, domestic violence.
The Criminal Justice System only found it appropriate to rear its head after Mulumba had killed the family abuser. For this, he has been sentenced to 20 years in jail. In my view, the young Mulumba has in the words of Shakespeare’s King Lear, been “More sinned against than sinning†- a phrase I long ago found appropriate to describe the way Uganda’s Criminal Justice System sometimes handles women who kill abusive husbands.â€
Ends
I mourn for Kizito Mulumba, who I guess lost his childhood long before his time, who perhaps will never fathom the concept of the “love of a father†and has now lost a clean criminal record
I mourn for Mulumba’s siblings who ……
As I read the article entitled “Why was Kazigo killed?†in Sunday Vision of May 14, 2006, several questions crossed my mind:
l What is and where is justice?
l What is the role of the Criminal Justice System?
l Who has been the real victim of violence which ended Dr Kazigo’s life?
l Would the Kazigo family tragedy have occurred if the family lived in Uganda and not in the U.S?
I am certain that some people may be asking the question: if the abuse was as horrendous as is being portrayed, why did Caroline Kazigo never leave the marriage? Nakizito Kazigo, a daughter of the family partly answers that question thus: “It was not only the threat of financial insolvency if she left my father (a notion he nurtured in my house-prisoner mother) but also the fear of physical harm.†The answer is in line with research carried out globally and which consistently reveals the fact of economic dependency, a fact aptly described way back in 1982 by Del thus:
Women are abused in many ways over and above physical violence. They are abused by their spouses as well as by the double standards of patriarchal society which prepares most women for nothing other than marriage, and thereby makes women economically dependent on their husbands.
More than 10 years ago (1992-93) I carried out research in Uganda’s prisons and focused on women who over several years had been subjected to physical and other forms of abuse by their husbands. These women eventually killed their abusive husbands. Asked why they had never left the abusive relationships, many of them said:
I had nowhere to go to. My father died and the land became my brother’s. My mother had no say in the property so she could not give me a piece to cultivate. … Yet I was too old to re-marry.
A review of literature recently coming out of American society still indicates that economics is a major consideration for many women to remain in abusive relationships.
Nakazigo’s answer also tallies with another reason why women never leave abusive relationships: the fear of injury from the abusive husband once she attempts to leave. Way back in 1980, Jones while writing on killing of husbands by American and British women asserted that the question why a battered woman does not leave the abusive relationship may in some circumstances, not be as important as the question “Why don’t the men let the women go?†International studies have shown that a woman’s decision to end the relationship is the event most likely to end in her murder. Research also found that perpetrators develop an obsession when the victims try to leave. They intensify physical violence and threats of homicide and suicide (Ganley, 1995). In America, it has been reported that battered women seek medical attention more often after separation: About 75% of the visits to emergency rooms occur after separation. Consequently, women stay in abusive relationships for fear of their safety if they left, they are often threatened with more serious abuse if they attempt to leave (Browne, 1997).
According to the New Vision article, the Kazigo boys had many times tried to call for help as teenagers but nothing was done. In the words of Nakazigo:
“Without evidence, without hospital reports of the severity of the damage, without multiple police calls to a house, prosecution of domestic violence is difficult. I guess this is why the local police ignored my brothers.â€
It is appalling that any society should consider what the Kazigo children went through as too trivial to warrant action by the state. Where were the agents of the Criminal Justice System when:
l John was hospitalized for a week after being hit on the head by his father and had to take anti-seizure medication for months thereafter?
l One of the Kazigo girls was thrown through a window?
l One of the girls was pushed through a glass window and then had her wrists sewn up without anesthesia?
The failure by the justice system (read society) to take action against family abuse is poignantly expressed by Michael Kaufman in the following statement:
If it were between countries, we would call it a war. If it were a disease we would call it an epidemic. If it were an oil spill, we would call it a disaster. But it is happening to women, and it is just an everyday affair. It is violence against women, or simply, domestic violence.
The Criminal Justice System only found it appropriate to rear its head after Mulumba had killed the family abuser. For this, he has been sentenced to 20 years in jail. In my view, the young Mulumba has in the words of Shakespeare’s King Lear, been “More sinned against than sinning†- a phrase I long ago found appropriate to describe the way Uganda’s Criminal Justice System sometimes handles women who kill abusive husbands.â€
Ends