Bwaise man jailed 17 years for defiling baby
Mar 17, 2009
A 20-year-old man who defiled a seven-month-old baby has been sentenced to 17 years imprisonment after he pleaded guilty.
By Hillary Nsambu
A 20-year-old man who defiled a seven-month-old baby has been sentenced to 17 years imprisonment after he pleaded guilty.
“The act is beyond animal instinct. The court must be merciless when passing the sentence against him, so that it sends a signal to such other men,†the trial judge, Justice Eldad Mwangusha, said.
After convicting Julius Nkurunziza, Mwangusha said he had considered sentencing him to death.
He, however, said he re-considered his view when he realised that death would be of no use.
“Maybe I have been converted into human rights activism. I thought that (death) would not be of help because the act defeats human imagination,†Mwangusha said.
He concurred with the state attorney, Paul Lakidi, that the accused deserved a stiff and deterrent sentence.
Lakidi had told the court that the mother of the toddler, a resident of Bwaise in Kawempe Division in Kampala, left the child asleep and went to a nearby pharmacy to buy medicine.
When the baby’s mother returned, the attorney narrated, she found Nkurunziza carrying the baby on his lap.
The toddler was crying and when her mother lifted her from Nkurunziza, she realised that the baby was bleeding in its private parts. The prosecution explained that the perturbed baby’s mother called in some neighbours as Nkurunziza fled from the house.
The neighbours examined the baby and confirmed she had been defiled.
A hunt for Nkurunziza was mounted immediately and he was arrested at the home of the mother’s relative in the same village where he worked as a shamba boy.
A 20-year-old man who defiled a seven-month-old baby has been sentenced to 17 years imprisonment after he pleaded guilty.
“The act is beyond animal instinct. The court must be merciless when passing the sentence against him, so that it sends a signal to such other men,†the trial judge, Justice Eldad Mwangusha, said.
After convicting Julius Nkurunziza, Mwangusha said he had considered sentencing him to death.
He, however, said he re-considered his view when he realised that death would be of no use.
“Maybe I have been converted into human rights activism. I thought that (death) would not be of help because the act defeats human imagination,†Mwangusha said.
He concurred with the state attorney, Paul Lakidi, that the accused deserved a stiff and deterrent sentence.
Lakidi had told the court that the mother of the toddler, a resident of Bwaise in Kawempe Division in Kampala, left the child asleep and went to a nearby pharmacy to buy medicine.
When the baby’s mother returned, the attorney narrated, she found Nkurunziza carrying the baby on his lap.
The toddler was crying and when her mother lifted her from Nkurunziza, she realised that the baby was bleeding in its private parts. The prosecution explained that the perturbed baby’s mother called in some neighbours as Nkurunziza fled from the house.
The neighbours examined the baby and confirmed she had been defiled.
A hunt for Nkurunziza was mounted immediately and he was arrested at the home of the mother’s relative in the same village where he worked as a shamba boy.