On\nthe evening of August 29, 2019, Sylvia Komuhangi walked out of the Gulu High\nCourt premises accompanied by a female prisons security official. She had a\nsmile plastered on her face. It was not a beaming smile. It was a restrained\nsmile, the kind of smile that projects more relief than joy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The\n32-year-old secondary school teacher, who was wrongfully sentenced to two years\nin jail for injecting a baby with HIV-infected blood, walked a 50-meter stretch\nto the parking lot area where her lawyer, Immaculate Owomugisha waited.\nKomuhangi and Owomugisha shook hands, hugged and clasped their hands around\neach other\u2019s waist for a while.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The\njournalists present at court took pictures of the two, and then Owomugisha\nstepped back to let Komuhangi share her thoughts with the media. With half a\ndozen video cameras and audio recorders in position, Komuhangi responded to the\nfirst question asking how it felt to regain her freedom after eight months in\nKitgum Central prison, 805 kilometers away from her home in Rukungiri.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI\nfeel so happy,\u201d she said. \u201cIt was so difficult.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A Friendly Visit Gone Wrong<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n On\nDecember 27, 2018, Komuhangi was arrested and charged at Kitgum Magistrate\u2019s\nCourt with the offence of committing a \u201cnegligent act likely to spread disease\ncontrary to Section 171 of the Penal Code Act of the Republic of Uganda.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n During\nher trial, at the Magistrate\u2019s Court, the prosecution stated that at about 9\nP.M. on December 26, 2018, Komuhangi carried the alleged victim away from her\nbabysitter to the bedroom and then returned later, with the baby crying. The\nprosecution continued that when the mother, Eunice Lakot, examined her baby,\nshe found swellings in both armpits. She took the baby to Kitgum hospital for\ndiagnosis, where doctors reportedly confirmed that the swellings were caused by\ninjections. Consequently, a medical professional tested Komuhangi for HIV, and\nshe was found positive. Next, the child was given Post-exposure Prophylaxis\n(PEP), an antiretroviral medication that prevents infection to anyone exposed\nto HIV during the first ninety-six hours. Subsequently, Komuhangi was arrested.<\/p>\n\n\n\n After\nregaining her freedom, Komuhangi narrated that she had traveled to Uganda\u2019s\nnorthern region from the Kampala for a tour in late December 2018, and spent\nseveral nights at a friend\u2019s house in Kitgum Town. After a visit to the Kidepo\nValley National Park, she returned to Kitgum Town to find her friend\u2019s home\nsurrounded by local authorities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe\nwere arrested there and then,\u201d she narrates. \u201cI spent two weeks in custody\nasking [to be released on bond], but they could not even bond me out, saying I\nwas a non-resident. When we went to court, I asked for bail, and they refused.\nThey refused to give me bail until they convicted me.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n The\nconviction was handed out by the Chief Magistrate of Kitgum, Hussein Nasur\nNtalo, on Thursday, July 4th. <\/p>\n\n\n\n On\nKumuhangi\u2019s release, Lakot, the mother of the baby, shared that the most recent\nresults showed that her baby is HIV negative. Lakot, nevertheless, said she was\nnot happy with the High Court\u2019s ruling, but the baby\u2019s maternal grandmother,\nRose Oryem, said they would not challenge the court\u2019s decision.<\/p>\n\n\n\n HIV Criminalization in Uganda<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Komuhangi\u2019s\nstory was covered by leading media houses in the country, including the Daily\nMonitor, the country\u2019s leading independent media house. It caused a public\nuproar in a country whose laws make it a crime to \u201cwillfully and intentionally\u201d\ntransmit HIV and also give the legal right to medical staff to disclose a\npatient\u2019s HIV status to others without his or her consent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In\nfact, Komuhangi is not the first convict as a result of those laws. In 2014, a\n64-year-old nurse in Kampala, Rosemary Namubiru, was accused of injecting a\ntoddler with her HIV-positive blood in the process of administering treatment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Namubiru\nwas put on trial amid pressure from several local and international\norganisations, including the Global Commission on HIV and the Law, who\ncastigated the quality of the media reporting in the immediate aftermath of her\narrest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe\nmedia engaged in unabashed and unverified sensationalism. Rosemary was branded\na \u2018killer,\u2019 guilty of maliciously and intentionally attempting to transmit her own\nHIV infection to a child,\u201d said the Commission\u2019s statement. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cSubsequent\nto those allegations, the baseless rumour-mongering escalated: various news\nreports branded Rosemary a fiendish serial offender; a nurse who was mentally\nill; a nurse without credentials\u2026. Sadly, we\u2019re convinced that the charge was\noriginally laid because of the media frenzy,\u201d added the statement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Taking Action Against HIV Criminalization<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n When\nKomuhangi\u2019s case hit the media headlines, it took a similar tone to that of\nNamubiru. As a result, it caught the eye of the Uganda Network on Ethics, Law\nand HIV\/AIDS (UGANET), a non-governmental organisation whose goal is to\nadvocate for the development and strengthening of an appropriate policy, legal\nhuman rights and ethical response to HIV\/AIDS in Uganda.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Owomugisha,\nwho is the UGANET head of advocacy and strategic litigation, says cases that\ninvolve HIV are not subjected to sufficient rigor, with sentiments often\ncarrying the day at the expense of proper investigation, prosecution, and objectivity\nin court.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cMost\nconvictions are based on unfair, inaccurate and overblown facts,\u201d she says.\n\u201cThe media usually joins to hype up stories [and] this sensationalism crowds\nout good judgment, resulting in a miscarriage of justice.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Speaking\nparticularly about Komuhangi\u2019s case, Owomugisha said the media continued a\npattern of HIV criminalization by condemning the suspect even before the\ninitial trial.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cSeveral\nmedia houses were set on the loose name-calling such as \u201cmurderer and killer.\u201d\nThe media buzz was everywhere, including on the radio airwaves for days. This\nundressed Komuhangi of all dignity,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n UGANET\ndecided to offer legal representation to Komuhangi, resulting in a swift appeal\nagainst her conviction. Within two months from the first time the appeal was\nfirst lodged before the Gulu High Court, she had regained her freedom.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Justice\nStephen Mubiru, who handled the appeal, quashed the conviction, saying that\nforensic tests showed that DNA traces found on the cloth that Komuhangi used to\nwrap the baby belonged to her but did not contain any blood.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI\ncould not find any connection between her piece of cloth and the blood said to\nhave been injected into the baby because the swelling found on the baby could\nhave been a mere rash,\u201d he added, according to a detailed report in the Daily\nMonitor newspaper.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Another\nof Komuhangi\u2019s lawyers, Louis Odong, said the ruling sent a message to people\nwho criminalize HIV victims not to engage in the practice while Owomugisha\nadded that the court\u2019s decisions had restored \u201cdignity to Sylvia Komuhangi and\nmany like her.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe\ncommend the court decision for setting an example that if courts scratched\nbelow the surface news, they would realize HIV positive status alone does not\nequate to malicious intent,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Way Forward<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n The\nExecutive Director of UGANET, Dora Kiconco Musinguzi, whose organisation works\nwith 32 other HIV law and human rights groups, said the criminalization of\npeople living with HIV, not only undermines the HIV response by compromising public\nhealth and human rights but that there is also no evidence of benefit from\nthose laws.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cAs\na community of HIV actors, we remind the nation that we cannot end AIDS, or\nreach epidemic control with HIV criminalization coupled with heightened HIV\ndiscrimination. Human rights and dignity need to be accorded to all. We need to\nstop stigma and end HIV criminalization,\u201d she stated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Kiconco\nsaid that in light of court\u2019s decision, the community of people living with HIV\nand organisations that UGANET works with recommend that the Constitutional\nCourt should fast track the hearing of Petition No. 24 of 2016, through which\ntheir issues were presented to the country\u2019s second-highest judicial organ for\ninterpretation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cMore\nlives continue to be adversely affected by the HIV criminal law. Justice\ndelayed is justice denied,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Kiconco\nalso called on Parliament to re-visit the HIV criminal laws with a view to law\nreform as \u201csome of the laws are unfair, vague and will encourage trumped-up\ncharges often.\u201d She said the law had been diverted from its original intent to\ncreate an environment where HIV is criminalized and where complications arise\nfor persons living with HIV.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The\nfinal appeal from Kiconco was directed to actors at all levels of the justice\nsector to increase rigor while handling HIV-related cases and to the media\nfraternity to exercise restraint while reporting on matters regarding the HIV\ncriminal law.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cOur\nConstitution espouses a key principle \u2013 innocent until proven guilty. Abusing\nvictims with names such as \u2018monster and murderer\u2019 is wrong. This jeopardizes\ntheir chance for a fair hearing,\u201d she emphasized.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" On the evening of August 29, 2019, Sylvia Komuhangi walked out of the Gulu High Court premises accompanied by a female prisons security official. She had a smile plastered on her face. It was not a beaming smile. It was a restrained smile, the kind of smile that projects more relief than joy. The 32-year-old […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":27983,"featured_media":11139,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_paywall_metabox":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[98],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11138","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\n