Dad faces death for defiling daughter

Aug 26, 2008

THE mother was admitted to hospital, leaving her 15-year-old daughter in the hands of her father. But the 45-year-old man instead defiled her at their home in Nateete, a Kampala suburb in December 2008.

By Herbert Ssempogo

THE mother was admitted to hospital, leaving her 15-year-old daughter in the hands of her father. But the 45-year-old man instead defiled her at their home in Nateete, a Kampala suburb in December 2008.

For months, the family tried to hush up the matter because James Kimera was the bread winner.

But the girl nonetheless confided the painful experience to an auntie who tipped the Police.

“This was horrible,” the Kampala Extra Police chief, Simeo Nsubuga, told journalists in Kampala yesterday. “It was very unfortunate that a father turned against his daughter and defiled her.”

He said it was wrong to conceal a criminal. “A crime is a crime regardless of who commits it,” he stressed.

Kimera, now detained at the Kampala Central Police Station, will be charged with incest and aggravated defilement, the penalty for which is death. Nsubuga added that Kimera would appear in court this week.

The magistrates act was last year amended to enable magistrates try cases of defilement involving girls aged 14 to 17.

Under the new act, defilement is divided into simple and aggravated. Magistrates take charge of the former, while judges handle the latter.

Defilement dominates the crime list. For instance, in 2007, defilement cases were 12,230 compared to 15,385 in 2006, Police records showed.

The majority of victims of defilement (11,999) were in the age group of 9-17, while 231 were aged 0-8 years.

Meanwhile, an 18-year-old is among three men held at Kawempe Police Station in connection with robberies in which women, among them a professor, were raped in Kampala.

Shafiq Sseguya, 18, Godfrey Ssendagire aka Fredo and Fred Ssentamu were arrested last week in Nansana, Wakiso district.

The trio, Nsubuga told the press, have been on the run. They are part of a gang that early this year burgled homes and raped women before robbing property.
“They took off when their colleagues were arrested but we kept hunting for them,” Nsubuga added.

Their accomplices appeared in court and were remanded to Luzira Prison.
Among them is Hussein Ssebirumbi, the prime suspect who boasted that they did not use condoms when they raped the women.

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