EASTERN PROVINCE

NYAGATARE—Police in Mukama sector have arrested a local man for beating his son, 12, a primary two student.
He was transferred from Gashongora Health Centre to the Nyagatare main hospital due to a worsening in his condition.

"It was by chance that the village leader came by our house, where he found me sweating to death, tied all altogether…My father tied me from Thursday around 2pm till Friday 12am in a kandoya, binding my hands with a rope in my back and battering me the whole night” the boy said in tears from his hospital bed.

He explained that he had sold two cups of beans to a friend to get school supplies. When his father found out he beat him and left him bound the whole night.

He was rescued by the village leader, who intervened and rushed the victim to Muhambo Health Centre in critical condition.

The district director for gender issues and health, Justin Rwagasore, expressed sorrow for the victim and said domestic violence in rural areas is rampant. Children and women are battered daily. He called the situation a reproach to society.

"The young man was tied with a rope to the extent that the blood flow in his hands stopped. Due to the pressure, his hands busted and now he’s bleeding all over the place. I have never seen such a thing in my life,” Rwagasore said. At the time of this report, the boy’s mother was keeping distance from her son for fear of arrest for neglect.

"Since morning we have not seen the mother. It seems she is scared the police will arrest her, as they arrested her husband. The son is saying that the mother witnessed the beating but did nothing to help him,” a patient next to the victim said.

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