Punish our mother for child neglect, children plead

RWAMAGANA - Children who were abandoned in Uganda by their mother have appealed to a court to give a harsh sentence to their mother for neglect. Hasina Nyiramana, currently facing charges of child neglect at the Kigabiro First Instance Court in Rwamagana District, is said to have dumped the children in Busega-Natete one of the Kampala City suburbs, before returning to Rwanda. The children were returned to the country by a Rwandan woman in Uganda, who saw them suffering. Talking to The New Times, the children narrated that their mother mistreated them while in Uganda. “We were dumped where we never knew anybody…our mother told us that Rwanda was not safe and that our father had died,” the children said, with tears rolling on their cheeks. “She returned to Rwanda without our knowledge. We were about to die of starvation and she deserves to be punished for that.” Nyiramana, with a late pregnancy, was recently transferred from a detention centre to Rwamagana Hospital, where she is receiving antenatal care under security. She claims that she had gone to Uganda for family business, but denies mistreating their children. The former husband to the accused Abdala Kadatinya, however, maintains that the woman tortured their children. “I am kind of resigned to fate that justice will mete out on this case,” he said. He narrated that he had separated with the accused after suffering from infidelity by his spouse. “Local leaders advised me to hand over part of my assets to her for the purposes on ensuring a better custody of the children. But she sold off the assets , collected the money and ran away with another man to Uganda,” he said. Ends