By David Livingstone Oduut
oduutdavid@gmail.com
Widowed women and those that have run away from marriage in Bukedea district are reported to have turned their sexual urge to underage boys in the district.
In Bukedea town the business center of the district, this website has learnt that a number of old single women mostly those that deal in small scale business lure young boys as young as 14 years into sex in return for small gifts like money or a trendy pair of jeans.
The trend has angered locals and leaders alike as this is said not fueled defilement among boys but also the spread of HIV.
“Most of these are women who have at least a stable business but have either failed in marriage or have lost a husband,” Ms. Jenifer Apolot a resident of Emokori ward in Bukedea town council said.
Ms Apolot revealed that these women rent small rooms as low as Shs20,000 in trading centers dotted throughout the district where they house young boys to satisfy their sexual needs.
“They usually hold some decent money on them and for a boy of 15 or 16 years, getting Shs10,000 and free sex is like having heaven on earth,” Ms Apolot who recently lost a 19-year-old brother to HIV said.
Mr. Mike Okwi the district councilor for Bukedea Sub County said hundreds of underage boys have been taken advantage of but was worried by the failure by communities to report such cases.
Mr. Okwi said the women also target young schoolboys as they need quick money for buying clothes during holidays.
“I am not happy that the focus is only given to girls once they are defiled but boys also face high risks after getting on with these women,” Mr Okwi who doubles as the district secretary for works said asking the leadership in the district to stand in the fight against the defilement of both girls and boys.
Ms Florence Amidiong the officer in charge family and child protection at Bukedea central police station said data for defiled boys is hard to find in the district due to failure by parents and victims to report cases.
This year alone, 140 cases of defilement have been reported in Bukedea district but none was of a boy.
According to 2018 police crime report, out of 15,366 cases of defilement reported countrywide, only 228 were for male juveniles.
“If you look at national figures it means boys are suffering in silence everywhere because nobody complains about them but as police were are ready to have women who defile prosecuted,” Ms Amidiong said.
Meanwhile, Mr. Eminpasia Ekoroi the chairperson Iteso Cultural Union in Bukedea district has blamed the rise in cases of defilement in the country to poor sex education at primary schools.
Mzee Ekoroi believes that teaching children about sex while they are still young gives them the urge to experiment it.
“Sex education should simply be abolished from primary school, it is the one inciting and building the urge for young children to start sex early, in the name of experimenting it,” Mzee Ekoroi argued.
However, Charles Icogor the deputy resident district commissioner Bukedea believed most of the youth being defiled are school dropouts who are battling poverty.
He said his office is going to start a skilling program in early 2020 in order to help them get self-employed.
“These women use money to lure these boys but since the majority of them are school dropouts, my office intends to help them get skills that they can use to make their own money,” Mr. Icogor told this website Wednesday afternoon.
thank you for noticing these bad act in the district. I encourage the district authorities to intensify the fight against defilement of both girls and boys.