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Uganda: Does Rape Exist in Marriages?
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The Monitor (Kampala)
2 November 2007
Posted to the web 1 November 2007
Solomon Muyita & Felix Basiime
Kampala
THE existence of rape in marriages or its absence raises one of the hottest debates in Uganda today.
Women and human rights activists want authorities to start apprehending violent husbands, who forcefully have sex with their wives.
Law enforcers, legal and health experts, however, think the issue of marital rape is unrealistic and is complicated to enforce.
They think the law prescribing the offence of marital rape is discriminatory as it seems to target men alone.
Rape, an offence in the Ugandan laws, is where one indulges in penetrative sex with another person without their consent.
It is the Domestic Relations Bill (DRB)seeking to specifically criminalise rape among married couples.
According to Section 61 of the DRB, a person who has sexual intercourse against the consent of his/her spouse is liable to civil and criminal responsibility.
This provision has come under attack. Some MPs and the public argue that marital rape does not exist, or that this provision could simply break up families.
The issue of marital rape raised a heated debate in Mbarara recently during a workshop organised by the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) and the UHRC.
Participants discussed Uganda's compliance with the international treaties it has ratified over the years.
The UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women asked Uganda in August 2002 to put in place measures to curb cases of violence against women, including marital rape.
The UN experts observed Uganda had many incidents of "violence against women such as domestic violence, rape, including marital rape, incest, sexual harassment in the workplace and other forms of sexual abuse of women".
Participants in the Mbarara workshop drawn from civic, political and law enforcers in western region sharply disagreed on whether marital rape should be an offence in Uganda.
Some male participants said marital rape should be changed to "marital sexual violence", while some females disagreed.
The women said some men even go to the extent of forcefully sodomising their wives.
Mid-western police chief, Martin Amoru, said the police normally turns away spouses that approach it with such complaints.
"There is no law for marital rape in our books, so long as the married couple uses the right organs in their home, there is no offence," he said, attracting a protracted debate.
OHCHR's representative in Uganda, Maarit Kohonen, disagreed with the policeman.
"The law on rape should take on the act itself rather than the players whether there are married or not," she said. "Rape at any point will be considered a crime. These things [marital rape] need to be investigated and dealt with."
Julius Tuhairwe, a lawyer attached to the Legal Aid Project, Kabale, argued that couples enter a covenant on their wedding day.
"Rape is judged on consent and the law considers consent among married couples to have taken place on their wedding day."
Some female participants however, contended that the wedding did not mean consent. "The word marriage does not mean a yes to everything between married couples," said a female participant.
A priest, Rev. Canon James Rutaraaka, of West Ankole Diocese quoted a biblical scripture: 1 Corinthians 7: 3-5 to make his case against marital rape.
"Let the husband render unto the wife due benevolence: and likewise also the wife unto the husband. The wife hath not power of her own body, but the husband: and likewise also the husband hath not power of his own body, but the wife. Defraud ye not one the other, except it be with consent for a time, that ye may give yourselves to fasting and prayer; and come together again, that Satan tempt you not for your incontinency".
Dr Ronald Kasyaba, a police doctor attached to Kabale Hospital said, it was not very easy to get medical evidence to support a marital rape case.
"Indeed whenever these things are brought to us, we simply write dash, dash on the form, meaning we have established nothing," he said.
The Penal Code Act prescribes a maximum sentence of death to someone convicted of rape. But the DRB proposes lighter penalties for marital rape.
Criminally, the DRB wants a person found guilty of marital rape to either be liable to a fine of 24 currency points (Shs480,000) or a one-year imprisonment; or both. A currency points is Shs20000.
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The DRB, which has languished in parliament for about a decade, would afford women and girls greater equality in matters relating to marriage, divorce and family property, according to the American-based Human Rights Watch.
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