Lunch time sex rampant â€" survey

Jun 06, 2008

IT is not only food that makes Kampala residents step out of work at lunch time. A sizeable number go for one-hour sexual escapades at lunch time, according to a <i>Saturday Vision</i> survey. More than a fifth of the lodges surveyed in all divisions of Kampala, indicated that lunch time was one of

By Carol Natukunda

IT is not only food that makes Kampala residents step out of work at lunch time. A sizeable number go for one-hour sexual escapades at lunch time, according to a Saturday Vision survey. More than a fifth of the lodges surveyed in all divisions of Kampala, indicated that lunch time was one of their busiest hours, with paired guests in most cases.

The survey, in which questionnaires were administered to 30 lodges selected at a random, was done in the first week of April. Whereas in most of them, room occupancy was highest at night, 23.3% said their rooms were busiest during the lunch hour.

Further analysis of the lunch time tenures shows that 57.1% of the guests come as a couple, compared to 28.6% who come as individuals. It was not clear whether 14.3% of the guests came alone or not.

Lodge workers were also asked an open-ended question to say what problems they had with their guests. The most cited problem was collection and disposal of used condoms left behind by their guests. They said it was disgusting to find used condoms dropped in the waste bins or on the floor without being wrapped.

Some said some couples fight in the rooms, while some get drunk and make trouble for staff. Others said they were not comfortable with hiding the identities of their guest, but sometimes they do it just for the sake of money.

The amazing revelation was that many of the guests come formally dressed – including suits or ties — implying that someone actually leave work and head straight to the lodge.

Though most men were casually dressed, about one third walked into the lodges with formal attire, implying they might have come directly from office. On the other hand, more than half the women walked into the lodges formally dressed.

In 69% of the cases, the booking was done by the man. At least 43.3% arrived on foot, 40% used boda boda, 33.3% of them came driving private cars, and 16.7% used special hire taxis.
One respondent in the Central Division told the story of why one woman preferred to come on foot, than drive to the lodge.

“Our parking space is open and she said she was uncomfortable leaving the car where it could be easily seen. So she left her car at some hidden corner a few meters away, and then walked to our lodge. She paid some of my boys to go and take care of her car, until she was done,” the respondent explained.

The question is why most of such high profile career people choose to go to the lodges, of all places. Could it be just an afternoon siesta, or a working lunch?

Some of the respondents thought that a big number of such guests were cheating on their spouses – so the lodges in a way acted as hideouts for the love birds. Moreove, it is not hard to hire the lodges. The lodges sampled in the Saturday Vision survey charged between sh5,000 and sh70,000 on average.

“How many times have we heard that so and so has been caught with another man’s wife or daughter in the lodge?” asks Johnson Awuzu, a 45-year-old businessman in Makindye Division.

According to the findings, the men who used lodges seemed to be coming with women who are about 10 years younger than them, some look like school girls. Most of the men were thought to be aged over 30-40, while most% of the women were thought to be aged between 20 and 30 years.

Not surprisingly, clashes are common in the lodges, often when the bona fide partners track them down. About 30 clashes were reported in the 30 lodges during the three months preceding the survey, implying an average of one clash per lodge.

This rings so true. In January 2008, 20-year-old Samuel Asea, a businessman in Koboko town was found dead in Sure Deal Lodge, Arua. The district Police commander, Julius Salube, said they did not know the motive of the murder, but some reports suggested that Salube and his unidentified partner picked a quarrel possibly over money.

On February 29, 2008, a soldier attached to the Presidential Guard Brigade was convicted and sentenced to death after he was found guilty of killing three civilians in a lodge in Mbale last year. The 23-year-old Private Zepha Muhumuza killed the three, in Nandudu Lodge on April 6, 2007. The murders were allegedly over a woman.

Are we surprised?

“Not at all,” says Dr. James Nsaba Buturo the ethics and integrity minister. “It is shameful and regrettable; and those men and women hiding away in lodges for affairs should be ashamed of what they do. Uganda cannot develop with such people.”

Dr. Elioda Tumwesigye, the Shema county legislator also says he is not surprised by the results of the survey.
“That is quite common. We call them multiple concurrent partnership. And most resorts and guest houses even have fees to charge even for the shortest time possible,” says Tumwesigye, who is also the chairperson of the parliamentary committee on HIV/AIDS.

He says while married men have been for long blamed for the vice, a new phenomenon is cropping up, with women, equally doing it.

“There is a class of ladies who don’t want to be associated with marriage. Then there are also married men who either want to hide away with other married women or even young girls,” Tumwesigye says.

Way forward

Buturo says there is need to involve the lodge owners in fighting immorality.
“We need to invite lodge owners to partner with us. Individuals are not only engaging in illegal practices, but it is also leading to the high HIV infection rates,” Buturo says.

Tumwesigye calls for intensive campaigns and peer programmes to ensure that married couples have a chance to meet and talk together and share their experiences on dealing with the challenges in marriage.

“We must encourage marriage as a sacred institution, not as an option,” he says.

“We should consider reducing the cost of bride price, and the price of weddings,” Tumwesigye elaborates. “At worst, we need to reduce the ceiling for divorce. In the western world, when the marriage is not working, it is easier to opt out. But it is hard here.”

(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});