How the pandemic escalated domestic violence

Oct 21, 2020

Within one month of the lockdown, the Police recorded more than 3,000 cases of domestic violence and six deaths.

Violence in homes has been on the rise eversince the lockdown was declared to curb the spread of COVID-19. Within one month, the police recorded more than 3,000 cases of domestic violence and six deaths. Our reporter spoke to some of the parties that have seen this first hand...



I met Jennifer Ajiambo on her hospital bed at Bishop Caesar Asili Hospital in Luwero district, with metals on her right arm. She had spent four weeks in hospital, recovering from surgery to re-attach the arm, which she says her husband, Robert Masinde Naku,  severed with a panga (machete).

She considers the incident, which happened nine weeks after Uganda was put under lockdown to curb the spread of COVID-19, the epitome of what she called the 16 years of violence, abuse and neglect that she and their six children had undergone.

A resident of Kamila village in Luwero district, Ajiambo said she was used to her husband drinking a lot of alcohol, regularly becoming aggressive, verbally insulting her and refusing to provide for the family.

Sometimes, the family would go up to three days without a meal, she said. She usually had to work on other people's plantations for money or food.

One time, Ajiambo left Masinde and sought shelter at the home of one of the people in whose plantations she worked. However, Masinde pleaded with her to return home, promising to change. But less than a week after, she accuses him of resuming his abusive behaviour.

She says whenever he would get money, he would disappear from home for some time and only return when it had run out. Ajiambo says she has reported her issues to the local leaders several times, but they did not get a solution, Masinde was only talked to.

They, later, referred her to the Police, but she says the station was too far away and that she did not have money for transport. So, she decided to stay and take care of the children, aged between one and 12 years.

Ajiambo, who is originally from Kenya, does not have relatives in Uganda. She says she had worked out a way of living with Masinde, but that things got worse during the lockdown. He became increasingly difficult and quarrelsome. One fateful day, he returned home with a kilogramme of maize flour for the day's meal, but without sauce to accompany it. Thereafter, he went out drinking.

Ajiambo went to pick her wages from the people she had worked for so that she could supplement their meal. After getting the money, she first went to church to pay her tithe. As she returned home, she found her daughter on the way who told her that their father had sent her to tell Ajiambo to return home. When they returned home at around 6:00pm, she says Masinde accused her of cheating on him. As Ajiambo prepared tea for their baby in the outdoor cooking shed, Masinde ordered all of them to stop whatever they were doing and enter the house.

Before long, she said he wanted to get intimate with her, but that she declined his advances. She tried to explain to him that it was not right for them to get intimate in their one-roomed house, while the children were still awake. Masinde started beating her and accusing her of adultery. She says he then picked up a hoe and threatened to cut her.

Ajiambo recovering from her injuries in hospital

Ajiambo and the children raised an alarm for help as her son struggled to take the hoe from his father. Masinde then picked up a panga as Ajiambo and the children tried to escape to safety. When Masinde caught up with Ajiambo, she said he first struck her on the abdomen and then the head. As he raised the panga high to cut her on the head, she tried to shield her head with her hand and the panga caught her arm.

The neighbours, who had now gathered, called the Police, who rescued Ajiambo and rushed her to hospital. The issue was referred the Luwero district probation and social welfare office.

Meanwhile, Masinde went into hiding, leaving their children to fend for themselves. The probation office mobilised well-wishers to pay for Ajiambo's treatment. In the meantime, the children were taken to a child care facility. Since they had not been attending school, they have since been introduced to start-up classes. Ajiambo said she does not know what to do and where to go after being discharged.

Increased cases of domestic violence have been reported in Uganda since the lockdown started in March. Although Uganda has been opening up in phases since June 22, the impact of COVID-19 and its responses are expected to be longlasting and keep changing, explains Lawrence Mugisha, an associate professor in veterinary medicine, animal resources and bio-security at Makerere University.

Mugisha said every sector of the country has been affected and there has been a huge impact on people's livelihoods. When it comes to women, the impact has been far reaching. 

GENDER-BASED VIOLENCE 

Violence in homes has been increasing since the lockdown started. Within one month of the lockdown, the Police recorded more than 3,000 cases of domestic violence and six deaths.

In Luwero, where Ajiambo's incident happened, Joyce Namigadde, the senior district probation and social welfare offi cer, said cases of domestic violence being handled by her offi ce more than doubled during this season.

Speaking at a seminar organised 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, said 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 arefrustrated, which has made them violent. The lockdown also led to the confi nement of abusers and perpetrators in households, with their victims.

Namigadde said information recorded at her office shows that issues that lead to acts of violence include failure to provide, partners finding out secrets about each other, such as adultery, disagreeing on how to discipline children and dealing with step-children.

She explained that out of every 10 cases she has handled during this season, six involve failure to provide. The impact of domestic violence has been exacerbated by the restrictions in movement and the curfew as victims cannot move out of the homes to seek help.

 HEALTH SERVICES  

Women's access to sexual and reproductive health services, such as family planning and maternal health services, was hindered due to restrictions in movement.

Prof. Fred Ssewamala, the director and founder of the International Centre for Child Health and Development, said in one of their studies — Kyaterekera Project in Masaka district — poor vulnerable women report that access to reproductive health services, including protection in form of PrEP, birth control and condoms has reduced.

Even after the opening of movement for women who seek such services, many feared to go to health centres because of the measures put in place to test for key signs of COVID-19, such as taking one's body temperature.

Some women who were using contraceptives in secrecy, could not continue when their spouses were around.

Diana Kabahuma Muhwezi, the communications coordinator at the Reproductive Health Uganda, said there was a 5% reduction in the number of people accessing family planning services between March and April.

In addition, family planning commodities continue to be stocked-out in at least 12% of the health facilities. Kabahuma said this will lead to unplanned pregnancies and other complications, such as unsafe pregnancies.



 LOSS OF INCOME  

Closure of schools also meant increased work for women in caring and home-schooling children, which also impacted their working from home.

According to the Economic Policy Research Centre, the closure of businesses had a severe effect on jobs dominated by women. More women (85.6%) than men (84.5%) are employed in the informal sector, which has experienced closure of businesses.

In addition, a breakdown by sector reveals that tourism and hospitality sector, where the majority of employees are women (6.6%) affected their income. The most notable case is that of hotels that laid off staff during the lockdown.

Maternal and child mortality 

Kabahuma also disclosed that between March and April, antenatal care attendance reduced by 7%, health facility delivery reduced by 20%, while immunisation reduced by 20%.

Due to failure to seek treatment at health facilities, several pregnant women suffered complications, some of which led to loss of life for both mothers and babies. The health ministry reported that from March to April, with the ban on public transport, at least seven pregnant women died while walking to a health facility.

Others died due to complications related to blood shortage. Kabahuma noted that blood transfusion is a key requirement in the provision of comprehensive emergency obstetric care, as it is used to treat pregnant women with anaemia and complications of child birth, like postpartum haemorrhage.

According to the Uganda Blood Transfusion Services, there has been a severe blood shortage since the closure of schools and other such institutions, which were the major donors of blood, Anne Lumbasi, a senior programme officer at CEHURD, said.

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