Pallisa Pentecostal Revival Ministries Church leader Wilson Otai explains Alupot’s situation to journalists
By Patrick Jaramogi and Anthony Bugembe
A breastfeeding mother in Pallisa wants her husband punished for forcing her to breastfeed his five puppies.
The 27-year-old Jennifer Alupot of Okurutuk village, Apopong sub-county said she had been married to Nathan Amoloi for over eight years.
“I produced four children but one of them died last year,” she said. “Now I have a three-month-old baby but my husband has been forcing me to share the breast milk with his five puppies,” she said.
Good Samaritans who have been helping her said the child had begun barking like puppies.
Alupot, who reported two cases of child neglect and assault, said the Police were frustrating her. Asked what punishment she wanted Amoloi to face, Alupot said: “He has humiliated me for long. I want him imprisoned for life.” Activists in addition want Amoloi to be charged with mistreatment.
Alupot is now getting support from ActionAid in Pallisa and the Pentecostal Revival Ministries. The little mud-and-wattle hut, which the church offered her, is a hive of activity as hordes of villagers throng the place to see “the woman who breastfed dogs”.
Narrating her frustration with the Police, Alupot said the Police arrested Amoloi but released him after two days. Apparently angered by the reporting, Amoloi beat Alupot to near death, she said.
“He then forced me to breastfeed his puppies,” Alupot explained. “He told me I had to breastfeed his dogs since he had paid two cows as dowry to my parents.”
Alupot said her husband brings home squirrels which he sometimes roasts in the bush. “That is why he wants his dogs healthy for hunting,” she said.
Rose Odoi, the ActionAid coordinator, said: “If we didn’t intervene, Alupot would be dead.” She said the baby had begun barking like a dog when the mother sought refuge at the offices of Women Won’t Wait, a charitable organisation which counsels women traumatised by domestic violence in Pallisa.
“Her breasts were swollen and had wounds inflicted by bites by the puppies,” she said.
Odoi said ActionAid would ensure that Alupot’s “killer” husband was punished. “We shall support her to get legal redress though the Police have let us down,” she said.
Neighbours confirmed that Amoloi had made his wife breastfeed his puppies. They said Amoloi’s pack of hunting dogs had become “a hazard to the village”, which is why the villagers killed them.
“Amoloi bought five puppies to replace the dead pack and wanted them to grow fast using breast milk,” said Festo Majanchi, ActionAid programme officer for Pallisa.
Amoloi, a seasoned hunter, had no kind words for his wife. “If I had not paid my two cows in bride price my dogs would have milk to take,” Amoloi told journalists and ActionAid officials at his home on Saturday.
The furious Amoloi chased the group away, threatening to deal with them if they dared step in his compound again.
Reacting to accusations of frustrating Alupot, the district Police commander, Amos Gumisiriza, said Amoloi was released on bond as the Resident State Attorney prepared the file for the court process.
He expected Amoloi to face charges of child neglect, assault and “any others advised by the State Attorney”.
Gumisiriza, however, suspected the woman to be mentally ill. But Wilson Otai, the head of the Pentecostal Revival Ministries church, described this as “rubbish”.
“This woman got mental stress due to what she was undergoing,” he argued. “We have been with her for three weeks and she wasn’t like this when she came here.”
The Pallisa child and family protection officer, Florence Amijong, said Amoloi had hidden the puppies and it was hard to investigate the case.
Commenting on the medical dangers both mother and child may be facing, Dr. Alex Opio, the assistant commissioner of national disease control, ruled out rabies.
“By the time a dog shows signs of rabies, it is mad and it just bites instead of suckling,” he said. He suggested that the baby be taken to a health unit to find out the cause of the barking.
Dr. Vincent Karuhanga of Friends Polyclinic Kampala said the barking could have been caused by associating with the puppies.
“That is why children are most likely to speak the language of housemaids,” he said. “A child does not make noise just because it shared milk with dogs,” he said.
He said the mother needed counselling and to keep the child away from the puppies.
Monday, May 25, 2009
Saturday, May 23, 2009
i knew her
I knew her
She came to me
At sunrise
To borrow my
White dress
For her daughter
Had graduated.
She came to me
At day break
To borrow
My green dress
For her daughter’s
Wedding party
She came to me
At crack of dawn
To borrow
My blue dress
For the daughter
Had given birth to
A baby boy
She came to me
At first light
To borrow
My red dress
For the nephew’s
Circumcision
Ceremony.
She came to me
At twilight
To borrow
My cream dress
For her daughter
Was admitted
To the hospital
She came to me
At dusk
To borrow
My black dress
For the daughters
Burial
Now I come
To her,
At daylight
Wearing
A multi- colored
Dress
To see her
Off
To the world
Of our ancestors.
She came to me
At sunrise
To borrow my
White dress
For her daughter
Had graduated.
She came to me
At day break
To borrow
My green dress
For her daughter’s
Wedding party
She came to me
At crack of dawn
To borrow
My blue dress
For the daughter
Had given birth to
A baby boy
She came to me
At first light
To borrow
My red dress
For the nephew’s
Circumcision
Ceremony.
She came to me
At twilight
To borrow
My cream dress
For her daughter
Was admitted
To the hospital
She came to me
At dusk
To borrow
My black dress
For the daughters
Burial
Now I come
To her,
At daylight
Wearing
A multi- colored
Dress
To see her
Off
To the world
Of our ancestors.
the Golden Child
The diamond child
Am 9 years old
My sex is not an issue
The issue is in the red eyes
I hardly know his name
“Master” we all call him
Monster it suits him best.
I know my Kiswahili
Learnt from beneath
Where you walk every day
As I search for my basics.
With that- that sparkle
I leant my mathematics,
Here Harvard is not an issue
and issue is get the money and run.
I know how to dodge the law
I know how to cash a check
I know who is good or bad
And I know that you think like
All of them ‘the capitalist’.
Am 9 years old
My sex is not an issue
The issue is in the red eyes
I hardly know his name
“Master” we all call him
Monster it suits him best.
I know my Kiswahili
Learnt from beneath
Where you walk every day
As I search for my basics.
With that- that sparkle
I leant my mathematics,
Here Harvard is not an issue
and issue is get the money and run.
I know how to dodge the law
I know how to cash a check
I know who is good or bad
And I know that you think like
All of them ‘the capitalist’.
The cold feet
The cold feet.
By Grace Atuhaire.
Monieg! Monieg! “Wake up” Malik said as he shock me from my bed. For a moment I thought I was in a dream till I heard him say
“Do not for get you have not yet packed, I would hate it if you become Kevin in ‘Home Alone’”. Immediately I jumped out of bed and there he was dressed in his blue jeans and white t-shirt with his cap on his head and the dark sun glasses like Will Smith in the ‘Bad boys’
‘‘What are you looking at?”
he smiled and nodded his head in agreement and wondered what was wrong with him, I then learned my head on the wall as I watched him bounce towards the door and walked out closing the door behind him,
”that’s my sweet brother!”
It was December at the time when most families around Ntinda left for their villages, the day before dad had decided to make a Christmas eves party to say bye to the friends who had stayed behind. we were planning to leave for Kisoro on 25th because his boss had made him work during the festival season and to him spending Christmas with our grandmother was a big issue for he is her favorite son, grand mother likes telling it to who ever talks to her .To me, a part from eating her best kalo (millet bread) I didn’t like the village for there are a few of my age mates and did not want to meet my cousin lane.
“Children we are going to the village on Friday” dad had told us on Wednesday night as we had our dinner. I nearly wet my pants at the sound of it “uh God, how am I going to meet lane?” I had thought .Till now as I turn on the showers I can feel the tease of my body as the water run down to my feet .indeed I think about my brothers words and I give it a thought at trying out Kevin but uh no! it cannot work out as I remember my mum’s perfect ness for she cannot enter the car with out making sure that every one is seated ,the house door and windows are closed and talking to the security man ,she always says she wants to give us all the best in education and social life and makes sure that we get what we ask for even if when my dad doesn’t want, like the time with Malik’s game puzzle, I had over heard her persuade Dad into buying it , and in Home Alone movie, the family had over 10 children and us we are two!
“Who on earth can forget either of her children behind ?” at least not my mother.
Bang bang! at the bath room door.
“Do you have to take the whole day in there?” I wished I had my own showers,
“Am coming out mum” I replied.
I heard her sigh and as I opened the door, there she was with her arms akimbo.
“Gwe can’t you at least dry your self”, she asked me as I passed through her arm pit and moved to the corridor I could hear her still upset with me.
“Hope one day you become of some importance to me..!.”
Uh no does she too know? Could lane have told Uncle Sam? But no at least not him, how about grand mother..? The thought of it got me more tease.
In my room, I hold my rosary and try to re-sight it but I couldn’t remember the second line after Hail Mary, is this blasphemy? I wondered.
And that’s not my thing, I let go of prayer to pack my bag. I fold my green t-shirt and holding it reminds me of Lane, that day I had put it on, I can see his eyes as he looked at me play with his sisters’ Lailah and Linate. He leaned to the corner of their house cross legged and his hands tucked in his jeans, he was so handsome and that’s why most of the village girls are so crazy about him, they chant his name when ever we would go to the spring for water and I too would always admired the way he flashed them off and then would turn to us as if nothing was going on.
At that time my parents had gone to Busaza for community meeting and had left me and Malik in the look out of Uncle Sam, Malik was already in bed for an afternoon nap and so I got jiggy with my cousins. the way his eyes followed me as I run passed him to the latrine behind their house and for a while I knew I was alone in there till I heard a knock at the door, I opened it and there he was, it was if I knew it was him, I told him I had just entered and he insisted on being in there with me .I wouldn’t be worried now if he hard not insisted, I had said no!
‘ Monieg!’ Malik called out from the corridor.
“Where is my pig puzzle?”
my brother has always been interested with puzzles ever since we were young, I remember with his last birth day Dad had promised him a puzzle and he had not brought it the next day, and from that day he always reminded him every day he checked us to school and before setting off for bed, I know that one!, he is so noisy especially when he wants some thing, and now his puzzle is lost.
“I don’t know!” and then I remembered where it would be because when I had my sparkle and had forgotten her in the sitting room at night, mum had shouted at me the next morning
“How many times do I have to tell you that you stay out of the seating room?”
She had promised to throw any thing of mine if found in there and last night he had slept off from the couch so it must be there...
‘Check behind the shelf in the reading room”
I don’t know how far I can go on with this situation ,here am thinking about Kevin ,I do not know how I feel about it but for sure am scared and he could be a big mouth ,but he seems to be reserved to him self ?uh no! someone must have seen him leaping and when asked, he told him ,especially grand mother ,she is always concerned about us ,what happens to us and the freaky part of this is that she is so hard to be lied .the way she looks at you with her piercing round eyes full of you are lying questions ,or I know the truth, judging every word you utter from your mouth ,its scarily!
I remember the time I over heard her telling my father that Uncle Sam hard lied her about how he came to have an accident when he was coming from Busaza on her birth day last year, she knew he was with women and he had told him it was because of the breaks of his car, as big as Uncle Sam! How would she have known that he was lying? Would lane have told the truth or a lie?
“Have found it” Malik exclaimed as he opened the door to show me his puzzle.
“Thanks sis” he said his face light up with ecstasy and disappeared through the corridor.
I can’t figure out what I will say when grand mother asks me for the truth will I cry? Or be brave and tell a lie? But who is to blame, me or lane?
I finish packing and carry my bag to the car in the parking yard and slide into the behind seats as I wait for every one to join me.
I can still feel as if lane was right besides me ,massaging my right hand as he pulled me closer to his warm body ,my legs shivered as his lips came closer to mine as I stretched my neck to receive them ,they met ,I didn’t know what to do next as he kept on pulling my lips with his ,it made a funny sound like a bauble .it was my first kiss ,with my cousin !he didn’t want to let go of me ,he pressed on hard to my hand pushing me with his body against the wall of the latrine ,for a moment I could no longer hear the buzzing of the flies ,and then my left leg tripped to the hall of the latrine but his hand was already there ,to shield me from an arrow, I ad forgotten about the rough voice of my Uncle Sam as he scolded lailah for not bathing lanet and the time I had linked there sugar and he sent me back home ever to enter again in their house for the whole holiday.
“Let me go’ I had whispered to him but he didn’t ,I tried to move away from him but the more I tried I, the more he pressed on hard toward me ,I had wanted him to go a way .Tears started rolling down my chic and there he was consoling me that it was okay as he pushed back to open his zip, I raised my ankle hard to fly of his trouser ,I had hurt his man hood , he bent down to my legs and I moved a way from him opened the latrine door and run as fast as I could.
But now I remember that as I last looked back, he had blood on his trouser
.what had I done? Had I killed “him” ,I had heard him call out my name for help but didn’t turn back ,that was my cousin socked in blood and I run for my life .what would you have done ,he wanted to do bad things with me. and now at the thought of it am guilty for everything ,I allowed him to lock the latrine door ,but I didn’t think that my cousin would do any thing ,and there I was running ,panting like a freaky dog.
As every one at in the car” put your seat belts on” and said turning to me and my brother his face all calm ,I felt I wanted to ease my self for a while but couldn’t say a thing ,I could feel the tension in my body ,I tried to open my eyes every time I slept along the journey thinking that I would be in a bad dream but every time I opened them ,there we were on the road and now we have reached in Kisoro town ,I can barely feel my own feet ,and as we branch off from the main road towards Bunagana ,our village and my blood froze and I begin to shiver ,and my mum handed me her shovel to cover my self .How I wish my mother could scold me here but not in front of my cousins, I remember the time when their dad had locked lanet from the garage because of playing with me after he had chased me out of there home, I could not tell my parents especially mum for she would turn the whole issue into war, and now what will she do to me and lane!?
my mother’s phone ring and she picked it and talked for quite along time okay yes….yes’s….alright …we are sorry and as she finished her good byes ,Dad asked her who it was and she said
“Its Uncle Sam and they are not coming this Christmas, it was a last minute decision for Linate had caught a cold”.
Poor her she must be pale now that we will not be together ,and for a while I put my mind to rest cause I have nothing to worry about for this holiday.i rest my chin on the car window and I am embraced with the keepers of the night, looking forward to meet my grand mother .and play alone all around uncle Sam’s compound.
By Grace Atuhaire.
Monieg! Monieg! “Wake up” Malik said as he shock me from my bed. For a moment I thought I was in a dream till I heard him say
“Do not for get you have not yet packed, I would hate it if you become Kevin in ‘Home Alone’”. Immediately I jumped out of bed and there he was dressed in his blue jeans and white t-shirt with his cap on his head and the dark sun glasses like Will Smith in the ‘Bad boys’
‘‘What are you looking at?”
he smiled and nodded his head in agreement and wondered what was wrong with him, I then learned my head on the wall as I watched him bounce towards the door and walked out closing the door behind him,
”that’s my sweet brother!”
It was December at the time when most families around Ntinda left for their villages, the day before dad had decided to make a Christmas eves party to say bye to the friends who had stayed behind. we were planning to leave for Kisoro on 25th because his boss had made him work during the festival season and to him spending Christmas with our grandmother was a big issue for he is her favorite son, grand mother likes telling it to who ever talks to her .To me, a part from eating her best kalo (millet bread) I didn’t like the village for there are a few of my age mates and did not want to meet my cousin lane.
“Children we are going to the village on Friday” dad had told us on Wednesday night as we had our dinner. I nearly wet my pants at the sound of it “uh God, how am I going to meet lane?” I had thought .Till now as I turn on the showers I can feel the tease of my body as the water run down to my feet .indeed I think about my brothers words and I give it a thought at trying out Kevin but uh no! it cannot work out as I remember my mum’s perfect ness for she cannot enter the car with out making sure that every one is seated ,the house door and windows are closed and talking to the security man ,she always says she wants to give us all the best in education and social life and makes sure that we get what we ask for even if when my dad doesn’t want, like the time with Malik’s game puzzle, I had over heard her persuade Dad into buying it , and in Home Alone movie, the family had over 10 children and us we are two!
“Who on earth can forget either of her children behind ?” at least not my mother.
Bang bang! at the bath room door.
“Do you have to take the whole day in there?” I wished I had my own showers,
“Am coming out mum” I replied.
I heard her sigh and as I opened the door, there she was with her arms akimbo.
“Gwe can’t you at least dry your self”, she asked me as I passed through her arm pit and moved to the corridor I could hear her still upset with me.
“Hope one day you become of some importance to me..!.”
Uh no does she too know? Could lane have told Uncle Sam? But no at least not him, how about grand mother..? The thought of it got me more tease.
In my room, I hold my rosary and try to re-sight it but I couldn’t remember the second line after Hail Mary, is this blasphemy? I wondered.
And that’s not my thing, I let go of prayer to pack my bag. I fold my green t-shirt and holding it reminds me of Lane, that day I had put it on, I can see his eyes as he looked at me play with his sisters’ Lailah and Linate. He leaned to the corner of their house cross legged and his hands tucked in his jeans, he was so handsome and that’s why most of the village girls are so crazy about him, they chant his name when ever we would go to the spring for water and I too would always admired the way he flashed them off and then would turn to us as if nothing was going on.
At that time my parents had gone to Busaza for community meeting and had left me and Malik in the look out of Uncle Sam, Malik was already in bed for an afternoon nap and so I got jiggy with my cousins. the way his eyes followed me as I run passed him to the latrine behind their house and for a while I knew I was alone in there till I heard a knock at the door, I opened it and there he was, it was if I knew it was him, I told him I had just entered and he insisted on being in there with me .I wouldn’t be worried now if he hard not insisted, I had said no!
‘ Monieg!’ Malik called out from the corridor.
“Where is my pig puzzle?”
my brother has always been interested with puzzles ever since we were young, I remember with his last birth day Dad had promised him a puzzle and he had not brought it the next day, and from that day he always reminded him every day he checked us to school and before setting off for bed, I know that one!, he is so noisy especially when he wants some thing, and now his puzzle is lost.
“I don’t know!” and then I remembered where it would be because when I had my sparkle and had forgotten her in the sitting room at night, mum had shouted at me the next morning
“How many times do I have to tell you that you stay out of the seating room?”
She had promised to throw any thing of mine if found in there and last night he had slept off from the couch so it must be there...
‘Check behind the shelf in the reading room”
I don’t know how far I can go on with this situation ,here am thinking about Kevin ,I do not know how I feel about it but for sure am scared and he could be a big mouth ,but he seems to be reserved to him self ?uh no! someone must have seen him leaping and when asked, he told him ,especially grand mother ,she is always concerned about us ,what happens to us and the freaky part of this is that she is so hard to be lied .the way she looks at you with her piercing round eyes full of you are lying questions ,or I know the truth, judging every word you utter from your mouth ,its scarily!
I remember the time I over heard her telling my father that Uncle Sam hard lied her about how he came to have an accident when he was coming from Busaza on her birth day last year, she knew he was with women and he had told him it was because of the breaks of his car, as big as Uncle Sam! How would she have known that he was lying? Would lane have told the truth or a lie?
“Have found it” Malik exclaimed as he opened the door to show me his puzzle.
“Thanks sis” he said his face light up with ecstasy and disappeared through the corridor.
I can’t figure out what I will say when grand mother asks me for the truth will I cry? Or be brave and tell a lie? But who is to blame, me or lane?
I finish packing and carry my bag to the car in the parking yard and slide into the behind seats as I wait for every one to join me.
I can still feel as if lane was right besides me ,massaging my right hand as he pulled me closer to his warm body ,my legs shivered as his lips came closer to mine as I stretched my neck to receive them ,they met ,I didn’t know what to do next as he kept on pulling my lips with his ,it made a funny sound like a bauble .it was my first kiss ,with my cousin !he didn’t want to let go of me ,he pressed on hard to my hand pushing me with his body against the wall of the latrine ,for a moment I could no longer hear the buzzing of the flies ,and then my left leg tripped to the hall of the latrine but his hand was already there ,to shield me from an arrow, I ad forgotten about the rough voice of my Uncle Sam as he scolded lailah for not bathing lanet and the time I had linked there sugar and he sent me back home ever to enter again in their house for the whole holiday.
“Let me go’ I had whispered to him but he didn’t ,I tried to move away from him but the more I tried I, the more he pressed on hard toward me ,I had wanted him to go a way .Tears started rolling down my chic and there he was consoling me that it was okay as he pushed back to open his zip, I raised my ankle hard to fly of his trouser ,I had hurt his man hood , he bent down to my legs and I moved a way from him opened the latrine door and run as fast as I could.
But now I remember that as I last looked back, he had blood on his trouser
.what had I done? Had I killed “him” ,I had heard him call out my name for help but didn’t turn back ,that was my cousin socked in blood and I run for my life .what would you have done ,he wanted to do bad things with me. and now at the thought of it am guilty for everything ,I allowed him to lock the latrine door ,but I didn’t think that my cousin would do any thing ,and there I was running ,panting like a freaky dog.
As every one at in the car” put your seat belts on” and said turning to me and my brother his face all calm ,I felt I wanted to ease my self for a while but couldn’t say a thing ,I could feel the tension in my body ,I tried to open my eyes every time I slept along the journey thinking that I would be in a bad dream but every time I opened them ,there we were on the road and now we have reached in Kisoro town ,I can barely feel my own feet ,and as we branch off from the main road towards Bunagana ,our village and my blood froze and I begin to shiver ,and my mum handed me her shovel to cover my self .How I wish my mother could scold me here but not in front of my cousins, I remember the time when their dad had locked lanet from the garage because of playing with me after he had chased me out of there home, I could not tell my parents especially mum for she would turn the whole issue into war, and now what will she do to me and lane!?
my mother’s phone ring and she picked it and talked for quite along time okay yes….yes’s….alright …we are sorry and as she finished her good byes ,Dad asked her who it was and she said
“Its Uncle Sam and they are not coming this Christmas, it was a last minute decision for Linate had caught a cold”.
Poor her she must be pale now that we will not be together ,and for a while I put my mind to rest cause I have nothing to worry about for this holiday.i rest my chin on the car window and I am embraced with the keepers of the night, looking forward to meet my grand mother .and play alone all around uncle Sam’s compound.
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