By John Masaba
The Police in Kampala have arrested a woman over accusations that she cut off her husband’s genitals in a suspected case of domestic violence.
Joy Biira, a resident of Nabisalu Wasswa Zone, Makindye division, is alleged to have chopped off Benson Bakulu’s genitals, which reportedly led to his death.
Preliminary investigations indicate that the attack happened on March 26, 2023, after the victim returned home drunk and started fighting the suspect, whom he always accused of having extra marital affairs.
Police spokesperson Fred Enanga said during the fight, the victim reportedly grabbed the suspect by the neck and started strangling her, which prompted her to draw a knife and chop off his genitals.
Enanga was speaking during the weekly Police briefing on Monday, March 27, at the Police headquarters in Naguru, Kampala.
Cases of domestic violence
There was a slight increase in cases of domestic violence registered in 2022 in Uganda, according to the 2022 Annual Crimes Report.
There were 17,698 reported cases last year compared to 17,533 in 2021, according to the report released by the Police recently.
On the other hand, sex-related offences declined by 10% in the same period.
In total, there were 14,693 sex-related cases registered in 2022 compared to 16,373 the previous year.
Domestic violence is the most common type of gender-based violence in Uganda and takes many forms including femicide or killing of a woman because of her gender.
According to statistics from the gender ministry, the Government is losing a total of sh18.3b in healthcare costs to deal with domestic violence and its effects.
Relatedly, Uganda Police is spending shillings 19.5 billion while local councils are spending shillings 12.7 billion on curbing the problem.
The total revenue lost by Uganda due to sexual and gender-based violence incidents between 2012 and 2017 alone translated to 0.25% of the national budget or about shillings 74.7 trillion, according to the ministry.
