For a long time I have been advocating for the rule of law and discouraging mob justice in society but the recent torture video by a maid of a 4-year-old girl Tumwekwase Claire at Kirinya ward has corrupted my thinking. I am glad she did not cross my path after I had watched the video and I will do whatever it takes to avoid meeting her.
I am associated with a high school group where the Tumwekwase Claire issue was debated and could feel the pain of the members who have had several bad experiences with maids. Some reported incidents of how maids ate the baby’s food, poison, others starve kids, and others give them piriton to keep them sleeping the whole day.
Others seduce the adolescent boys in the home, others take over the man of the house, others connive with thieves, others feed family members on human waste, others abandon toddlers in the house, others import their boyfriends into the home, others expose children to pornography, and others subject the kids to all sorts of physical and emotional torture among others.
The disturbing video recorded at Kikoko Zone, Namataba Cell, Kirinya Ward, Kira Municipality in Wakiso District has left serious scars on many hearts and paused serious questions in the minds of the modern day parent. Who on earth and in their right state of mind would vent their anger and frustrations on a four year defenseless innocent baby?
What explanation can be given for the ruthless actions of the 35year old Tumuhirwe Precious towards an innocent baby? Was she a pregnant with emotional disorders, was she a part time step mother or she was purely a house maid, was she denied her salary as a way of stopping her from going to the village for the festive season?
I do not care about the reasons why the maid acted the way she did, I do not even care to know her state of mind but my anger was equally directed at the person who instead of helping save the baby choose to behave like a cctv camera that gives postmortem results. From the flickering of the video, one can tell there was a third party recording the events and not the maid herself.
Matters are made worse that the person who recorded the video did not bother to call the police or even the neighbours or the local council giving the suspect room to escape. Police confirmed the maid was arrested from her village in Kabale having abandoned the baby in the house to die. I hope she was not disgruntled for performing “duties” beyond her job description.
Ordinarily, the person recording would be a good eye witness in court but he or she forgot about their duty of care in such incidents. Yes, credit is given for recording and circulating the video but that is not good enough. The harm would have been less if there was an external intervention to stop the enraged maid from squeezing life out of the innocent child.
As the police at Kira Division probe the incident with a view of presenting the suspect in court for the aggravated torture, many questions have been left hanging. Mwesigwa Michael is said to be the father of the victim and was looking after his young family with the help of this particular maid following a bitter separation with the victim’s mother two years ago.
I would understand if Claire’s mother was dead, out of the country, imprisoned or mentally challenged but the current odds without being judgmental paints a bad picture of her. If indeed Claire is four years to day and the mother left two years ago, it means the mother abandoned her or was forced to abandon her when she was only two years.
It is my humble thinking that beyond the torture, the two parents must be investigated to establish their culpability in the eventual torture of the innocent baby. Certainly, one of the parents or both was/were careless in doing or failing to do what they ought to have done or what they ought not to have done for the safety of that baby now struggling for its life in Nsambya.
The laws on custody especially of children such as Claire, a girl for that matter and even common sense, call it natural instincts favour the mother. I have been struggling to imagine the exceptional circumstances that played out to warrant the current predicament where a mother quits a home and leaves her two year old bay in the hands of a maid.
We can only hope against home that Claire gets another chance to live. Seeing how the maid twisted her legs, squeezed delicate body organs, bit her with her dirty teeth and hit her on the flow, chances of surviving are not so many and if she lives, she will have everlasting physical and psychological challenges for life because of bad parental decisions.
I have often advised parents to take extra precautions when employing a maid to avoid such incidents that have raised serious fears. It is always important to establish the past record of the maid starting with family background, criminal records and antecedents in terms of past general behavior. Laws alone will not eliminate this recurrent problem from society.
Nobody wants to work as a maid but conditions force these ladies to abandon their own children to take on your own. She is expected to clean the house and compound, look after children, cook, wash dishes and clothes, go to the market, wash the family car and other chores at 50,000/= per month which money cannot even pay for a meal in a moderate restaurant in Kampala.
She is expected to sleep last and the first to wake up to prepare her boss’s children to go to affluent school where they pay millions in school fees. Many of these maids are single mother with school going children and parents to look after. She looks at the salary she earns compared to the work she does and only sees a hopeless future ahead of her and her own children.
Naturally, frustrations and envy set in. on top of the hard work she does, nobody seems to appreciate her or give her a token. She is constantly reminded that she is a house girl by the parents and the children. She earns no respect for the work she does in the house. We may have to consider a minimum wage for all domestic workers and regular leave days.
In some homes, maids are given a rank that makes them think they are special; they are called house managers and not maids or house girl. They are given a day off at least every Sunday to explore life outside the enclosed walls. They are given incentives such as free pads, deodorants, bathing soap, treated for free when they fall sick among others without touching their salary.
They are allowed to share the dining table during meals, allowed to watch television when through with their work and can even plait their hair to look good. Some families even buy their maids new clothes and even give her some new and old clothes or shoes to take or send to her own children in the village.
Should the maid have a genuine reason to go to the village, some families drive her to the bus park or surrender the family driver when not busy to drive the maid to the village. Never deny a maid an opportunity to check on her own biological children and parents. Such incentives or moments help reduce tension among house managers.
Past incidents like that of Jolly Tumuhiirwe, a house help who was filmed venting her anger on an 18-month-old child should teach us life time lesson. While in court, she justified her actions as revenge on her boss who used to beat her. Relying on cameras to monitor what happens at home only provide a postmortem report of what happened and does not restore injury caused.
Wadada Rogers is a commentator on political, legal and social issues. wadroger@yahoo.ca
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