Cultural institutions should protect the girl-child from harmful cultural practices

Recently in the Elgon region of Bugisu, girls as young as 10 years of age were paraded on the streets of Mbale city, 90% half naked in the name of celebrating cultural diversity among a number of tribes. This nude parading of the girl child even drew the wrath of the Uganda women parliamentary association (UWOPA) which challenged the Uganda police to go for the organizers of the now infamous Elgon festival for violating the rights and undermining the girl-child dignity.  

 Such overt practice of exposure of our teenager girls to salivating cosmopolitans of the city  has a number of ramifications. Firstly, the HIV prevalence is higher in city, child birth is on the rise and thirdly such a ceremony offended all Ugandan laws on protection of the girl child. Section 13 and 14 of the pornography Act 2014 imposes very stringent penalties on any one found exposing teenager’s nudeness to the public.

In Buganda, there is the famous Kisakaate where young girls are assembled in some organized place and taught a few basics about their culture and other needed practices of life. The Elgon festival organizers should have borrowed a leaf from the Baganda culture on how to protect the girl child than going for the all sexual event.  

READ ALSO: Organizers of Elgon festival face arrest for parading half-naked girls during cultural gala

It is a dangerous practice to mix young girls of as low as 9 years and moreover naked with dangerous adults who are of no relations to them  at all. Bugisu cultural institution through the institutions spokesperson dissociated itself from such practices of parading young girls as though they were heading for circumicision, the spokesperson said among the bamasaaba girls are not allowed to undress before strangers.

Any Ugandan culture or custom that is at variance with the nation’s laws should be condemned and accordingly outlawed, the spirit behind Article 2(2) of our constitution should not be compromised since the constitution succinctly states that any law or custom that is variance with the constitution is a nullity.
In future, the organizers of such functions including enforcement agencies must address themselves on the law before sanctioning such activities. The public outcry among many stakeholders indicates somebody slumbered over their jobs, and in future proper safe guards should be followed so that we don’t end up reincarnating abolished practices like Female Genital Mutilation (FGM).

Cultural institutions should thus reassert themselves and protect this young children who will be future mothers and leaders of our nation. Buganda kingdom stands out of the crowd in protecting the rights of the girl child, and parents ought also to blame for entrusting their children to strangers of such functions.

Yesterday or so while celebrating the international day of the African child, similar emphasis was made on protection of the girl child. In Uganda abundant laws exist to protect the girl child right from the constitution such as the children’s Act while there are also punitive laws that punish those who are found abusing the rights of the girl child like the Penal code Act ,and the Anti-pornography Act 2014 

The author is a researcher and administrator from Mbale