BARREN WOMEN IN UGANDA WHO FAKE PREGNANCY ARE ON THE RISE.

Writes Leo Odera Omolo.

Police have arrested a 29 year old woman from Gomba in Mpigi district,  in the south eastern part of Ugand for faking pregnancy, and taking a dead child to her husband.

Maria Goretti Nantongo was arrested on Saturday at her husband’s home in Makindye, a Kampala suburb, where she had taken a yet to be identified corpse of a one day old child.

Narrating the detailed account of the incident, Mr Henry Kalulu, the Kampala Metropolitan Police Chief, during his weekly press briefing, said that the woman had failed to conceive in her several years in a marriage.

Sometime in the middle of last year, she reported to her husband that she was pregnant, but left her matrimonial home when her husband, a Mr. Francis Walugembe, insisted that he saw no signs of pregnancy in her. Mr Walugembe, according to the police chief, had suspected that she was faking her pregnancy by wrapping a heap of clothes around her waist.

Following an argument with her husband who was trying to ascertain the truth of the pregnancy, she ran away to live with her relatives. But while living with her relatives, Nantongo kept on calling her husband from time to time, asking him to send her money for her upkeep.

According to the Metropolitan police chief, Nantoingoi suddenly showed up at her husband’s home last Saturday morning, carrying the corpse of an infant baby, claiming that she had given birth to the babay the previous night, but the baby had died. She blamed the baby’s death on neglect by her husband.

According to Mr Kalulu, the woman’s husband got annoyed, and immediately reported the matter to the police, who swung into action, and arrested the woman.  The police later took Nantongo to Mulago Hospital for medical examination, where the doctors found that she had neither been pregnant nor given birth.

The Police Chief revealed that the force was actively investigating the incident, and a postmortem examination on the dead infant baby is being carried out, adding that the police were looking for the parents of the dead child.

Nantongo will be produced in court later this week, to face charges of murder, the Metropolitan Police boss told newsmen.

The police, he said, are also investigating the possibility that she could have dug up the dead baby from a grave. In that case, she would be charged with disturbing the peace of the dead!!.

According to Mr Kalulu, this is the second incident involving fake pregnancies in less than a week.

Namatovu Kalala, a 45 year old woman and a resident of Nziga Parish, in Wakiso district, on Thursday narrowly survived being lynched by a mob, after she claimed to have given birth to twins, but returned home with a pair of dolls. She blamed Mulago Hospital staff and nurses for stealing her newly born twins. This was after she lied to her husband that they had died.

Mulago Hospital authorities, however, could not trace her record as having been admitted in its maternity wing. She was immediately arrested and taken to a medical scanning examination, which showed she had no sign of a recent pregnancy or birth.

Nsagi magistrate court on Monday this week found her guilty of giving false information to the police .The magistrate, John Robert Okapi, sentenced Namatovu to a fine of Ushs 300,000 , or serve a prison sentence of 12 months. She could not raise the fine immediately, and broke down in tears, saying she had no means of raising the money.

A prison warder immediately whisked her out of court room, which was parked to capacity with the residents, who turned up to witness the “Doll Mother” verdict.

Ends
leooderaomolo@yahoo.com