GAME RANGERS OR SEX PREDATORS! Rape Scandal Rocks UWA as Rangers Abandon Animals for Teen Girls
The latest allegations have placed UWA Executive Director Dr. James Musinguzi under scrutiny as stakeholders watch how he will handle the crisis and restore confidence in the authority.
An uneasy calm hangs over Sukut village in Terenboi parish, Kitowoi sub-county. Nestled at the ragged edges of Mount Elgon National Park in Kween District, this rural community is grappling with profound anger and a familiar sense of helplessness following the alleged rape of two minors by armed game rangers.
The victims, aged 13 and 17, are currently receiving treatment after they were reportedly intercepted and raped on Thursday, July 2, while searching for firewood inside the national park.
The incident has once again thrown a harsh spotlight on the volatile relationship between the Uganda Wildlife Authority (UWA) and the communities bordering the protected conservation area, reigniting long-standing allegations of systemic sexual violence, impunity, and a broken justice system.
The latest allegations have placed UWA Executive Director Dr. James Musinguzi under scrutiny as stakeholders watch how he will handle the crisis and restore confidence in the authority.
According to the LC1 Chairperson of Sukut Village, Moses Yesho, the two teenagers left their homes on Thursday afternoon to gather firewood, where they met two rangers who were on routine patrol inside the park.
He explained that instead of guiding them out or using lawful means, the rangers took advantage of the minors. He narrated that the teenagers crawled back to their village late the same evening, visibly traumatized and physically unwell.
Shocked by the condition of their children, the parents immediately reported the case to his office before rushing them to a nearby health facility for emergency medical examination.
“We took them to the hospital that very evening to ensure their lives were safe and to secure medical evidence,” the chairperson narrates. “The following morning, we filed a report with the police.” On Friday, a joint team of police detectives and local community members trekked deep into the rugged terrain of Mount Elgon to visit and document the scene of the crime, where they found blood spots and a ranger’s cloth torn.
Fredmark Chesang, the Sipi Region Police Spokesperson, confirmed the incident and said a case file has been opened and formal inquiries are actively underway to bring the suspects to book. Chesang condemned the incident, expressing dismay that trained personnel entrusted with enforcing the law and protecting life could turn into perpetrators of violent crime against minors.
“This is completely unacceptable. Once our investigations are complete, these individuals will face the full force of the law in court,” he said. Chesang urged communities to exercise extreme caution, advising residents to always report to UWA detachments before entering the protected forest zones.
He noted that while nothing justifies sexual assault, navigating the park illegally leaves vulnerable groups exposed. “The rangers may have taken advantage of the fact that these juveniles did not clear their entry with the officers stationed at the detachments before entering to collect firewood. For security reasons, clearance is always necessary,” Chesang added.
UWA Spokesperson, Bashir Hangi, said they had heard of the allegations but unfortunately no one has mentioned the rangers involved. “We don’t condone such criminal acts. Once we get to know the rangers involved, we will take tough action against them. We encourage the affected families to report the matter to police so that investigations can commence to bring the culprits to book,” he said in a text message.
For local women’s rights defenders, the latest assault is not an isolated case of misconduct, but rather the tip of an iceberg in a long history of unchecked abuse by park handlers. Scovia Chelangat, a women’s rights activist based in Kitowoi sub-county, claims that incidents of sexual assault and rape allegedly committed by UWA rangers against local women have been quietly occurring for years.
She notes that past cases have rarely seen the light of a courtroom because investigators routinely claim a lack of “sufficient evidence,” a loophole she says perpetrators have learned to exploit. “Women in these border communities have been complaining about this exact vice for a long time, but their voices are always ignored or swept under the carpet,” Chelangat says bitterly. “This time, the family acted quickly. The children were examined immediately, and we have the medical evidence. Can we please let the law take its course cleanly and swiftly?”
Prescila Kusuro, the Chief Executive Director of the Sebei Transformation Initiative (STI), a regional non-governmental organization advocating for the rights of women and girls, echoes these concerns. She warns that the violation of women’s rights, particularly in rural, isolated parts of the Sebei sub-region, is escalating at an alarming rate due to systemic neglect.
“The rate at which the rights of girls and women are being trampled upon without drawing serious attention from higher authorities is growing,” Kusuro observes. “Women in these rural areas continue to suffer in silence, abandoned by the very systems meant to shield them, yet the constitution guarantees them full protection.”
The conflict between UWA and the populations surrounding Mount Elgon National Park is decades old, usually characterized by violent clashes over land boundaries, illegal encroachment, crop raiding by wild animals, and retaliatory wildlife poaching. However, as activist groups point out, the gendered dimension of this conflict, where women and young girls fetching water, bamboo shoots, or firewood become targets for physical and sexual abuse, is rarely addressed in official conservation dialogues.
The latest allegations have placed UWA Executive Director Dr. James Musinguzi under scrutiny as stakeholders watch how he will handle the crisis and restore confidence in the authority.
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