Police in Kwania District have arrested a couple for allegedly dumping their newly born baby in a pit latrine.
A 21-year-old woman married to a 23-year-old man Friday night successfully delivered the baby at a hospital in the area.
A close to the pair that has another 4-year-old chil told authorities that after child-birth, “the husband allegedly dumped the child in the pit latrine while the woman did the same for the placenta and other blood-stained materials used during labor.”
The pair, both residents of Awe-Ilok Village, Etekiber Parish in Nambieso Sub-county in Kwania District are now accused of the crime committed over unknown reasons, local authorirtes said.
“The brother of this man told me about the incident but we found the baby already dead,” Mr Samson Guna, the area LC1 chairman told this reporter.
Local authorities said the reasons for the couple’s act were yet to be known.
“The woman has been concealing her pregnancy under unclear circumstances but could tell us that she is sick and diagnosed with an infection in her stomach which needs an operation,” the LC1 chairman disclosed.
The Officer in Charge (OC) of Nambieso Police Station, Mr Benard Okello confirmed that the suspects detained on Tuesday “were transferred to Kwania Central Police Station for further management of the case.”
“We went to the crime scene and arrested both of them but the woman was not feeling well. So, we had to first take her to the hospital,” he added.
Cases of dumping children are common amongst youths that comprise about 7million of Uganda’s more than 44million population.
