Rwanda : Defilement still a problem in Rwanda – Police
The Rwanda National Police have said that though there have been several measures put in place to fight defilement; the vice is still rampant in the country.
Police statistics shown that this year, between January and August 1, 120 cases of defilement have been recorded. Last year, the cases where young girls were defiled was 1, 779.
Article 190 of the new Rwandan penal code, defilement is defined as any sexual intercourse or any sexual act with a child regardless of the form or means used.
According to police, development cannot be achieved while the little girls continue to be deprived of their individual key rights and probably denied a better future.
Psychologists argue that, when a girl is defiled it leads to occurrence of anti social behavior such as loneliness, trauma, infertility, resentments, frustration and hatred of opposite sex among others.
And when some of these consequences or possibly all of them happen, the victim ends up losing hope on life thus affecting even her performance in school.
More disastrous according to police are the penalties given to the offender especially to their families.
Article 191 states that, any person, who commits child defilement, shall be liable to life imprisonment with special provisions.
This brings into the picture those children who will live without parental care, if the father is handed a life sentence or just knowing that one will spend their whole life in prison.
Rwanda National Police (RNP), through Community Policing is now in a sensitization drive to communities about the dangers and the consequences of defilement.
According to Inspector of Police, Belline Mukamana, the Director of Anti GBV and Child Protection, Police has embarked on awareness campaigns which she said are carried out right from the grassroots.
“We work closely with other key partners such as the Ministry of Gender and Family Promotion, local leaders to address such issues,” said Mukamana.
Emmanuel Nzaramba, the Director of Family Promotion in the Ministry of Gender and Family Promotion says that they are seeing awareness campaign yield impressive results as people now report such cases contrary to the past.
He urges parents to take the initiative in sparing some time off their busy schedules to attend to their children and talk to them about such issues.
