EASTERN PROVINCE

RWAMAGANA — Gender based violence is among the leading causes of poverty in families, the Chief Superintendent of Police, Emmanuel Gakwaya has said.

"With conflicts at home and fighting, victims lose energy and concentration they would use to work. Perpetrators also have unsettled minds and waste time in conflicts,” Gakwaya said last week at a meeting to assess last year’s activities in the Eastern Province, at Avega offices.

Calling on authorities to fight the vice, Gakwaya observed that the main resource of the country is its human resources and domestic violence retards the country’s development.

He urged residents to report violence crimes to police in order to avoid the culture of impunity.

During the meeting, several cases of domestic violence were cited including verbal abuse and the silent method where a partner may provide everything to the spouse as required, but cuts off communication.

Among the violence crimes reported included an incident in which a man was burnt by his wife with hot cooking oil.

"I wonder how one does something like that to someone whom you have ever loved. As a result, development is retarded because someone cannot think or work while facing all this,” Gakwaya said, pointing out that domestic violence is common among polygamous families.

Some men out of excitement, after harvesting produce, he noted, marry another wife.

As a result of misunderstanding due to polygamy, he added, many problems arise where even children kill their own fathers. Sometimes co-wives kill each other, or men kill their former wives, he added.

Gakwaya decried cases of defilement and rape of underage children and women which he blamed on domestic violence.
Other children, he noted, become victims of infanticide.

The Police official also castigated parents who send their children into commercial sex as a means of earning a living.

On abortion, he said the practice was due to unwanted pregnancies especially among poor people.

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