Nakivale (Uganda) : polygamy claims victims

In the Nakivale camp in Uganda, several households are broken up, women preferring to leave their husbands who no longer have the means to take care of their households. Men have been murdered after being caught with other people’s wives, seeking financial means to support their families. INFO SOS Médias Burundi

This Thursday, there was a funeral like no other at the Nakivale camp in Uganda. Some call it “incident of the year”.

A man has been killed after being caught in bed with a woman who is not his. The incident took place in the Kabazana A zone, in a motel.

“A man was informed that his wife to whom he is legally married frequents the motel more often and that she was there. The husband then positioned himself there with a knife. When he saw his wife come out of the bedroom with another man, the fight started. The adulterer was quickly stabbed with a knife by the woman’s legal husband”, eyewitnesses said.

The victim succumbed to his injuries a few minutes after being transported to the camp hospital. The perpetrator of the crime fled but was arrested and put in jail for police investigation.

“This village is cursed. He is the second man killed in this adultery case since the beginning of this year. Cases of assault and battery are countless because there are so many”, say refugees.

These indicate that the main cause of infidelity is poverty.

“Several women here led a comfortable life with their civil servant husbands. Arrived in exile, the situation has changed and the men no longer work and therefore do not have the means to properly maintain their wives. The latter prefer to sell themselves to have beauty products and other family needs”, they analyze.

“Several men have gone to towns like Kampala and Mbarara to avoid this hard life of having their wives taken by other men”, regret refugees adding that domestic violence has become commonplace in Nakivale.

Several humanitarian NGOs hold monthly awareness campaigns to fight against domestic violence and others raise awareness among refugees to be resilient and agree to change their lifestyle to survive with the little they have.

This camp has more than 33,000 Burundian refugees.