Robbed of his manhood

Six year-old Isaiah Musindi’s private parts were cut off when he was only three months old. Since then he has had three operations but none has relieved his woes.

By Andrew Masinde

Cheerfully playing with fellow children at Save Street Children Uganda (SASCU) in Kamwokya, a Kampala suburb, Isaiah appears like a normal six-year-old bouncing along with his friends. Nothing betrays the trauma he went through and the secret fears he may hold in his young mind.

When he was only three months old, unknown people cut off his private parts at his parents’ home in Kabarole. “I had taken his elder sister to show her where to buy the milk. I left Isaiah sleeping in the chair,” says his mother, Prossy.

“When I came back, he was crying and there was a puppy near him with a lot of blood on its mouth. I thought the dog had bitten him.”

When Isaiah was rushed to a clinic, it was discovered that his private parts had been cut off. It is feared that someone did it for ritual purposes and the dog was a ruse to confuse any investigations.

The confused parents reported the matter to Police, but the investigations were not fruitful. The boy was treated at Kabarole Hospital where his wounds were stitched, leaving no outlet for urination.

“When we reached home the boy was uncomfortable due to the pressure of the urine that forced the stitches to burst. He started bleeding again and we treated him at home,” Prossy says.

Here, the young boy sits with his father. PHOTO/Andrew Masinde

When the boy’s wound became worse, the family came to Kampala seeking help from well-wishers to enable them get better treatment. His father, Charles, a hawker in Kampala, was referred to SASCU, an organisation that looks after street children.

“When the boy was brought here he was in a bad state so we had to rush him to Mengo Hospital where he was operated to create a small hole to enable him pass out urine,” says Innocent Byaruhanga, the director of SASCU.

“The operation was expensive, but we did what we could as an organisation, though we could not help him get back his private parts. But at least he can now walk and play with others.”

However, after some time Isaiah started experiencing pain in the ribs and abdomen. When he was taken back to Mengo Hospital it was discovered that his kidneys were being affected by the poor outflow of urine as some was being retained in the body. He had to be operated for a third time to widen the urine passage.

But with no physical sexual organs, trouble still lies ahead for this maimed young man. At six years, he has already realised that there is something amiss.

He now feels uncomfortable when bathing with other children because he is not like the other boys. In most cases he has to be bathed in private.

Byaruhanga explains that the organisation is trying to look for funds to take Isaiah for cosmetic surgery in the US so that he does not live with the pain of being different from other men.

“I am always in agony, wondering what explanation I will give him the day he asks what happened to him. If I had money the first thing I would do is to take him dreams are to see him back to his normal life, I fear that the love we share with him now might end the day he discovers he has a permanent problem on his body,” laments Charles, Isaiah's father.