{UAH} How poverty got teenage couple into ‘marriage’, jail
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How poverty got teenage couple into 'marriage', jail
Written by TREVOR S BALEKE
Sande at the police stationAfter four months living as man and wife, a 16- year-old boy and a 13-year-old girl have been arrested.
The two have stayed together since January and are expecting a baby four months from now. This couple lives in Mawangala A village in Nyenga sub-county, Buikwe district, not far away from their parents.
Health workers at Nyenga hospital were surprised on April 8 to receive the juveniles at the maternity ward. The couple had gone for antenatal care. When the two arrived at the ward, business came to a standstill.
"The girl's tummy was swollen, when we examined her it was proved that she was actually carrying a 4 ½ months' pregnancy at her age of 13," a nurse told us.
Asked who the boy with her was, the girl told health workers that he was her husband, even known to her family.
"Imagine most [adult] men don't accompany their wives to the hospital but we wonder where this little boy got the courage!" the nurse said. The hospital administration later handed the 'couple' to Njeru central police station.
PARENTS AWARE
In separate statements, the boy and girl told police their parents knew they were staying together. Isaac Sande (the boy) said the girl's mother officially blessed their marriage the day they decided to live together.
"My wife's mother called me to her place and told me that she had given me her daughter to take her home and I look after her," he said.
"She told us that she had blessed our marriage and she prayed to her ancestors to bless our marriage with children," Sande told The Observer at the police station on April 9.
The 13-year-old primary two dropout said her mother gave her away because they were poor and hungry. The hospital claims that Noor Kagoya is 13 years old but the mother says she is 14.
The girl's father died in 2002 when she was just a few days old. Her mother, with her 10 orphans, was reportedly chased from her deceased husband's home by her in-laws.
PARENTS ARRESTED
The boy's father, Godfrey Wandera, 50, and Birabwa (the girl's mother) were also arrested on April 9 for allegedly procuring defilement. But Birabwa denied the charge. She said her daughter just left home and went to the boy's home.
Asked why she didn't report to police, she said: "I am a widow and have no one to help me. I feared that they [community] would say I have caused trouble to Wandera's family and revenge against me," she said.
Wandera said he learnt of his son's marriage from police. He said his son dropped out of Nyenga C/U primary school in P3 three years ago and started living with his uncle.
"My elder brother Ongeso is the one who has been keeping this boy because I have nothing to feed my family," he said.
Wandera said he has two wives with 11 children and no source of income to look after his family.
"Therefore when Ongeso asked me for this boy, I just told him to go and really he has helped me," he added.
RELEASE US
But Kagoya, the girl, asked the Njeru police division commander (DPC), Chris Kigundu Katumba, to release her and her husband.
"Sande and I have to go and look after this pregnancy; therefore, I ask police to allow us to go back home," she said
Kulusumu Nakyesa, the officer in charge of the child and family protection unit at Jinja CPS, said the boy had a case to answer. She said it was criminal for a boy of 16 to 'defile' a girl of 13.
"Anybody above 13 years takes responsibility for his criminal acts. Therefore if indeed the girl is below 13 years, the boy will be charged with aggravated defilement," Nakyesa said.
But Kigundu said the two parents would be charged with procuring defilement, child negligence and sabotaging government's universal primary education programme, UPE.
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