By Elizabeth Ankunda
28th April 2023
Authorities at the Uganda People’s Defense Force’s (UPDF) barracks in Nakasongola District have arrested two teachers at Nakasongola Army Secondary school for allegedly brutalizing a Senior One student identified as Andrew Kasiita.
The suspects have been identified as Corporal Jackson Bitaryebwa and Private Enoch Tindimwebwa both attached to Nakasongola Army Barracks.
The images shared with the media and have since gone viral show that the brutalized male student has bruises all over his body with preliminary findings showing that he was lashed more than one hundred canes for reasons yet to be known.
Speaking to Radio Sapientia, the Spokesperson of the UPDF’s Nakasongola Cantonment Capt Favourite Rugumayo says the detained culprits face disciplinary action upon confirmation of their involvement in the assault case.
By press time, Kasita was receiving treatment at Bombo Military Hospital after the parents petitioned the office of the Resident District Commissioner on Thursday.
Godfrey Lutalo, the LCIII Chairperson of Nakitoma Sub County and parent to the student explains that the teachers picked up his son on Tuesday and whipped him several times.
This is after a fellow student named him among those who were stealing books and selling them to chapatti dealers.
Samuel Mbangire, the Nakasongola District Inspector of Schools that the district education department has asked the Board of Governors of the school and the Barracks to provide a report by Tuesday on what happened and action taken against the teachers using their own disciplinary mechanism.
It’s reported that this was not the first incident, several learners have been complaining of corporal punishments.
Cases of corporal punishment are still prevalent in schools despite its abolition in Uganda in 2016 by the insertion of a new article, 106A, into the Children Act.
The article stipulates that a person of authority in an institution of learning must not subject a child to any form of corporal punishment.
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