‘Lewd men who rape boys must be castrated’

PARLIAMENTARIANS yesterday bust in uncontrollable laughter, after Tanga Urban MP Mussa Mbarouk (CCM) proposed that the House enact a law that will have women forcing young boys to have sex with them be ‘castrated’.

Mr Mbarouk’s proposal came as a replica of Special Seats Lawmaker Rukia Kassim Ahmed who suggested that the same House should amend the Sexual Offences Special Provision Act, 1998, to have a provision that will categorically state that men convicted of assaulting children be castrated.

During the Question and Answer Session, Ms Rukia said there was an unprecedented increase of sexual assault in children especially in Zanzibar calling for the government’s intervention on the vice. “The law has a lot of weaknesses that need to be addressed to rescue our children that is why it is important that we amend the current law to have all men convicted with this offence to be castrated,’’ she said.

In his response, Deputy minister of Health, Community development, Gender, Elders and Children, Dr Faustine Ndungulile said the government is well aware of the gravity of offences that have been humiliating children, adding that several actions were continuously being taken to look for the lasting solution. “The actions of humiliating our children are currently being prevented through a special network that has the Child Helpline Number 116, which a child or any other person can freely call to report all incidents in an event they are spotted,’’ he said.

According to Dr Ndungulile, the information is received by the network where immediate action to report the culprits to responsible authorities are taken including providing any required immediate medical attention to the victims. “Between January and December 2017, 1,072 incidents were reported to this network and actions taken accordingly,’’ insisted the deputy minister.

Several MPs, were bitter with the incidents of sexual assaults, a move that made several ministers to stand up and give clarifications. One of them was the minister for Internal Affairs, Dr Mwigulu Nchemba who said in a spirited fight against the vice, the police Force decided to establish the gender desks that are acting immediately when such incidents are reported.

“We have more than 417 gender desks countrywide and we have equally been providing massive education to mitigate the vice because majority of offenders commit these offences due to superstitious beliefs,’’ he said adding that his ministry had equally approached clerics so that they can remind their faithful to shun such myths.

The Minister of Education Science and Technology Professor Joyce Ndalichako said her ministry was also providing life skills that help school girls and boys report such incidents even if the perpetrators are their teachers.