Revisit the rape maid case

By Prossy Kuteesa

The acquittal of the Pakistani nationals accused of gang raping a house help stunned me just as it did to others.

Judging from her reaction to the acquittal, the victim’s expectations that our justice system would bring a ray of hope to her were completely shattered.

The exoneration of the accused should awaken all of us about our justice system, which is designed and meant to protect the powerful and rich members of our society. It is that section of our society that has the capacity to hire crafty lawyers who know how to beat the system of justice. They know the loopholes.

I was, for example, at pains to agree with the magistrate’s ruling that the absence of injuries on the victim’s body was inconsistent with the allegations that she was assaulted before she was raped. I found the basis of her ruling ridiculous and incredible because rape can take place without the victim being physically injured.

For, example, a single mother intimidated that she would be sacked, if she did not consent to sexual demands of her boss may find it hard to resist the threat because her job may be the only source of livelihood for her and the children as well. In this particular case, the victim was a housemaid, which means that she was vulnerable.

Besides she is of a small build compared to her alleged tormentors. I am convinced that even merely barking at her was enough. Even her decision to come out to expose what happened to her was a great sign of boldness because I believe she had been warned of dire consequences, if she dared do so.

In my opinion, the trial magistrate ignored the circumstances and the environment, where the crime is alleged to have been committed. She also ignored the fact that this was a simple village, semi (or) illiterate girl who deserved protection because she was incapable of understanding the intricacies and tricks in the legal system.

Her evidence was bound to be porous but the trial magistrate needed to go beyond the evidence on the table to dispense justice.

Women activists need to force the Government to have this case revisited the way it did that of a man accused of killing a child in child sacrifice. He was eventually sentenced to life imprisonment. This particular case brought to light the shortcomings in our justice system and the need to evaluate the decisions of our justice officers.

Time has come for the enlightened people in our society to monitor judicial decisions and press for review or revisits of decisions found to be wanting. If we allow this case to be buried, the repercussions may be dire. We shall be promoting impunity because what happened to this girl is the tip of the iceberg in our society where young women desperate to survive end up working as housemaids.

We all know that mob justice in our country is a result of the failure of our justice system. Criminals are being let loose by our courts to continue terrorising the population.

It is in reaction to this the citizens often take the law into their hands to mete out punishment to the offenders.

The writer is an English language and literature lecturer at Ndejje University