Jealousy husband caned for haunting wife

The Gender-Based Violence (GBV) case involving Besweri Opio 39 and his wife Florence Ikiringi 33 hit headlines and became the talk of the village paths and pot beer parties. Eyebrows raised in shock in Kapokin village based in Kumi district. Wherever the perpetrator passes jokes are cracked about his behaviour.

"It took me by surprise to learn that when I went to fetch water, my husband Besweri always stalked me, he suspected that I was having a secret love affair," narrates Ikiring. "I would be hit by stones on the buttocks. When I checked for the source, in the bushes and trees - there was none.

Initially, Ikiringi suspected it might be some jinni (evil spirit) following her every move. A traditional healer said it was her dead grandmother's ghost because she loved her so much before she passed on in 2018. She never went for burial. They needed a black sheep to be sacrificed and lots of ajon (millet beer.)

"Amucalat (my wife) did I not tell you to stop going to the well with other women?" asked angry Besweri in a deep baritone.

"It is because I am always hit by stones from nowhere!" answered Ikiringi. "That is why I went with other people for my protection."

Shortly after the interrogation, while cleaning the house Ikiringi was hit again by stones. She suspected her husband to be raining stones at her.

To crown the GBV, one-day Besweri came out of the bathroom with a basin half full of used tea brown coloured water. He splashed the dirty water on Ikiringi's face as she was preparing the vegetable sauce for dinner. This was followed by a package of insults.

Ikiringi reported her ordeal to LC one Martin Opio. He notified him about leaving her marital home. 

To cut the long story short, after a month Besweri went dragging himself on his knees for Amucalalt to return. 

"Amucalat come and look after our children," begged Besweri. "The children need your love, care and attention. Being a Bodaboda rider, I come back home to find them hungry, dirty and sleeping hungry'."

Ikiringi said she would not return unless Besweri promised to change and pay a fine of his choice for the Violence she had gone through. The elders were summoned and he was challenged to choose the punishment befitting the torture he had put his wife through.

Before lying down, Besweri revealed to those under a tree shade that Ikiringi had cheated on him when he suffered a male dysfunction three months after their marriage. She was dating a certain man who made her pregnant.

"I accepted the son as my own and named him after my father," confided Besweri. "Shortly after, she gave birth to twins who look like me. This made me love Ikiringi even more. Every moment she spends away from me, I imagine a lot of evil…"

Besweri chose 20 strokes of the cane but says the pain was so intense he had to cry in vernacular.

"I do not think the stones I used to shoot her secretly pained her as much," argues Besweri. "What made the canes hurt was, it being done in public and I crying as Ikiringi looked on. But come to think about it - I would do anything to have her back home for our family's sake."

Gender-Based Violence

Figures from the ministry of gender, labour and social development, show that even before COVID-19, there were cases of GBV however, due to the lockdown the figures began to escalate.

According to the ministry, between March 30 and April 28, a total of 3,280 cases of GBV were reported to the police. This is in addition to 283 cases of Violence Against Children.

Speaking at a recent seminar organized by the Knowledge Management and Evidence Response Unit at Makerere University School of Public Health, Dr Richard Idro, the president of the Uganda Medical Association, explained that the increasing cases of violence are due to the fact that many people, especially men, have been disempowered by loss of income.

Subsequently, they are stuck at home where they are unable to provide and are frustrated, which has made them violent.