Sodomy victims found HIV positive

http://www.monitor.co.ug/News/National/Sodomy-victims-found-HIV-positive/-/688334/2171888/-/a55e73/-/index.html

By ANDREW BAGALA

Posted  Tuesday, February 4  2014 at  02:00

Kampala

At least four of the seven children who were allegedly sodomised over the past week in Kampala have tested HIV positive. Police have promptly asked parents to double their efforts to protect their children from pedophiles.

Kampala Metropolitan Police spokesman Ibin Ssenkumbi said the suspects were also found to be HIV positive.

“We received four sodomy cases against children in only one week in Kampala. The increase of such cases is worrying us. We have arrested five suspects, whom we have examined and found to be HIV positive,” Mr Ssenkumbi said yesterday.

Police records show that two cases were reported at Old Kampala Division while the rest were registered at Kira Road Police Division.

The incidents come at the time when religious leaders are pressing President Museveni to assent to the Anti-Homosexuality Bill, which was passed by the Parliament last year. The Bill has sections that directly punish the offenders, who are HIV positive, with life imprisonment on conviction.

Mr Ssenkumbi said they may charge the sodomy suspects under Section 129 in the Penal Code (Amendment) Act of 2007 which states: “Any person who performs a sexual act with another person who is below the age of eighteen years in any of the circumstances specified in subsection (4) commits a felony called aggravated defilement and is, on conviction by the High Court, liable to suffer death.”

Unlike in the previous sodomy cases where victims and their guardians have been uncooperative, Mr Ssenkumbi said this time round, relatives of the victims are willing to give evidence in the matter. “Parents should educate their children against moving around with strangers,” he said.