Alice (Pseudo name), is a seventeen-year-old girl with disabilities of both deafness and dumbness, who hails from Kamubuga Sector in Gakenke District, the Northern Province, in 2020, she was raped while on her way to collect water, she was tricked by a 16 years-old-boy, who dragged her inside the house, and raped her.
According to her mother, “I became suspicious when she delayed there, as a result, I went to check as to what might have happened to her, as it was approaching the house where she had been dragged to, I asked if they might have seen her, by that time, the boy was outside the house, and he asked me whether I had an assignment for her, so that they could inform her in case found her.”
Immediately he went back inside the house, and shortly the girl came out of the house.
Instantly the boy who had Alice in the house came out and asked her whether she had failed to find Alice, tell me what you want her for, I will tell the neighbors that you want her, then he went back inside the house.
After knowing about her rape case, her mother took the matter to the grass root administration and they, in turn, overlooked the issue boy who her, more than track medical documents which indicates that she has mental health disabilities, and they said to have asserted that Alice was the one who had raped the boy because the alleged rapist was younger than Alice. After the incident, the health authorities gave her family planning pills to prevent her from conceiving, and drugs that prevent sexually transmitted diseases.
" When I was going to the well, I passed in front of that boy, and she told me that I should come and he tells me something, then I entered the house where she undressed me." Alice had this to say.
After knowing about her rape case, her mother took the matter to the grass root administration and they, in turn, nullified it. They based on the pretext that her child didn’t have a card identifying her as a person with disability, but the citizens and some of the grass roots leaders know very well that this child has mental disabilities; hence helping the boy who had raped Alice to flee, alleges Alice’s mother.
MUSHIMIYIMANA Gaudence, is the Executive Secretary of UNABU and had this to say, “Whenever it comes to a woman and a girl with mental disabilities/hearing/blindness, every time they need someone to assist him/her, and when it comes to mental health, the family says that the testimony she can present can’t be reliable."
Twambazimana Cecile is a woman with physical disabilities in Kamubuga Sector, and a representative of Persons with Disabilities in the Sector, and doubles as a member of administrative structures of the National Council of Persons with Disabilities in Kamubuga Sector.
" The problem we have had in this Sector, there are many persons with disabilities, who missed the chance of getting the cards for identification, therefore Alice happens to be one of them, and it is one of the prevents her from easily accessing justice because it’s the first prerequisite they are asked to present to the court, whenever problems arise, as you can see, this Sector is among the underdeveloped, where communication is still low, lest rendering persons with disabilities to remain behind, and she is among the people on the list who missed that chance, who are still waiting for the health worker.
