THE Luweero Grade One Magistrate Court in the Central Region of Uganda, has sentenced Dorothy Nabulime, a resident of Busula A village, Katikamu Sub-county in Luweero District, to 18 months imprisonment following her guilty plea for subjecting her two-year-old baby to cruel, inhuman treatment and bodily harm in breach of Section 7(1) of the Uganda Prevention and Prohibition of Torture Act 2012.
Nabulime was first arraigned before Magistrate John Paul Obuya on Tuesday, September 6. She was made to appeared before Luweero Chief Magistrate, Mariam Nalujja Sserwanga, for her sentence on Tuesday, September 13, after the same court convicted her on own guilty plea on September 6.
Given the judgment, Nabulime will serve a prison sentence of 18 months for cruel and inhuman treatment of her baby and a six month sentence for causing bodily harm to the two-year old but the two sentences will be served concurrently, Chief Magistrate Sserwanga said in her verdict.
“While you serve the sentence, the prison should avail counseling services to ensure that you go back to society as a changed person. I have read through your defense but the child that you tortured was very innocent,” she told told the convict.
The district chief state attorney, Peace Bashabe, had on September 6 told the court that Nabulime between May and September 3 mistreated the child despite intervention from her neighbours and local council authorities.
“The neighbours got concerned after observing her cruel actions against the baby. She also received a warning from the Local Council office at Busula. The office advised residents to capture the evidence on video and forward it to higher authorities in case the suspect failed to honour the earlier warnings,” Bashabe said.
Nabulime, a mother of three, was filmed in a video that is now viral, torturing the toddler, sparking rage among citizens leading to her arrest. She later told Court that she was sorry for having subjected her own child to such ill treatment blaming the incident on anger. She told court she conceived the child as a result of rape and does not know the father.
Meanwhile, the Luweero District Probation Office, Joyce Namigadde, in an interview with Daily Monitor, Uganda, revealed that the two-year-old baby is fine and temporarily at a Child Care home in Katikamu Sub-county.
She advised residents to ensure that family challenges are shared with the authorities. “The probation office is open and available to handle cases involving family challenges including the child welfare related cases.
“We also have the Local Councils, the office of the Community Development Officer and the Police Child and Family Protection Unit to handle family related cases,” she said.
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