Videos of women battering toddlers circulating on Uganda’s social media platforms have irked the country’s investigations directorate.
The Criminal Investigations Directorate on Thursday evening announced that it had launched hunt for women seen brutalizing children. In the videos, women are using big sticks to beat children including stepping on their necks. The shocking videos have seen social media users demanding police to have the culprits apprehended.
Commissioner of Police- CP Fred Enanga, who speaks for country’s national police, said investigators have since started a hunt for the suspects whose actions tantamount to aggravated child torture.
“In the video, the suspect is recorded while thrashing, kicking and stamping upon the head of a male juvenile, who was helplessly crying in pain. Our task teams are fast tracking all leads,” CP Enanga said.
One of the women, according to police’s preliminary investigations, was recently released from jail on attempted murder. She is said to be a resident of Kisoro district but currently living in Lwengo district.
“Clues from social media suggesting how both the victim and the suspect were residents of Kinoni-Kyangwe in Lwengo District. Unfortunately, the leads have yielded no results yet. There are also further efforts to verify a second video, of a woman recorded while beating a toddler, with a huge stick in a narrow corridor within a compound,” CP Enanga said.
The obstacle in the second video is however that the sound was muted and the language in the background could not be picked very well. Police say the third video of a woman trampling upon a naked toddler and repeatedly throwing him to the ground, has been established to be foreign.
Ugandans have been encouraged all those who could have witnessed the young children being victimised under these life threatening situations to alert the Child and Family Protection Unit at Police Headquarters, at Naguru.
Police personnel in charge of children and family have been tasked to take interest on all forms of child abuse, especially where they receive calls or information for assistance. Enanga said such alerts should thoroughly be evaluated as there seems to be an increase in child threats especially orphaned children, abandoned children, children with guardians or caretakers, and children in abusive families.
“They should further strengthen their level of cooperation with Local Councils, Probation Officers and shelter homes. We strongly condemn such cruel and inhumane acts of child torture, because there is no justification whatsoever,” police said.