The media has been awash with the Electoral Commission chairperson Badru Kiggundu’s statement on Kizza Besigye’s son Anselm Besigye.
Mr Kiggundu was quoted saying; “If I were a young person, I would ask (Dr Besigye) where your son is in this campaign. In most times, they are in New York, London and elsewhere enjoying cheese burgers…”
I wish to inform Mr Kiggundu and everyone else who shares the same opinion that if there is any Ugandan child who has suffered ever since Besigye began seeking the office of the president, it is his son Anselm.
We have all seen Besigye being violently arrested several times. Many times he has either been sprayed with pepper, beaten and bundled onto police pick-up trucks, etc, leaving many Ugandans equally traumatised.
For Anselm and the rest of Besigye’s children and other family members, the trauma is immeasurable, damaging and has untold consequences that may only be manifest many years later. And such consequences cannot be compared to the cheese burgers or luxury life Kiggundu is talking about.
Research has proved that when children witness their parents’ arrest, they suffer post traumatic disorders. Such children experience nightmares, sleeplessness, and sometimes mental illness. Children who witness their parents being arrested develop a negative attitude towards law enforcing officers and are likely to become violent and may commit crimes.
We should thank Ms Winnie Byanyima , who by virtue of her job, stays with Anselm in foreign countries and has probably tried to shield him from such scenes when his father is being arrested, and has counseled him a lot. Although with the existence of social media, it is hard to shield anyone from such information.
Such Children need immense support, because from experience and research, children with parents who are imprisoned or arrested in such a manner react differently to their parents’ predicament at different ages. At some point, they begin to ask many questions and the impact of the trauma starts to set in, forcing some of them to become violent, unruly, perform poorly at school, other children drop out and can commit crimes.
Kiggundu was quoted further saying that, he will approve the military to counter Besigye’s defiance campaign. This statement is also traumatising to a childlike Anselm, because relating to what has happened to his father in the past, every day he lives in fear for his father’s life.
If there is anyone who has been at the frontline and has suffered gross torture in Besigye’s pursuit of the highest office in Uganda, it is his son.
Francis Ssuubi,
Coordinator- International Coalition for Children with incarcerated parents
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