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BY RICHARD DRASIMAKU
ARUA: Thursday, November 27, 2025
Digital Gender Based Violence, which the Uganda Police has defined as technology facilitate violence directed towards person on the basis of gender is increasingly becoming a common crime, raising concern among the communities and activist in the Country.
As a result, civic leaders and gender activists from West Nile to Kigezi are forging avenues to speak with a common voice in seeking solutions to stamp out the vice.
Their efforts have been more pronounced in the recent days as they held several simultaneous events to launch the 16 days of activism against gender-based violence which this year is dedicated to combating digital gender-based violence.
Maj Betty Otekat Akello, the Arua Resident city commissioner, who testified being a victim of extreme gender based violence at a young age called the renewed focus on containing digital gender based violence a justified case of action.
“The theme of the activism is calling upon us to unite in order to end digital violence against all women and girls. I am a woman who I ready to support you in fighting GBV,” she said.
Maj Akello thanked the Lugbara cultural institution for the pronouncements against GBV.
She noted that GBV is a result of poverty and stressed that the economic empowerment of women is a key solution.
Maj Akello called for public awareness in supporting GBV fighting entities and support systems like the police and urged the judiciary to expedite all cases of GBV.
“In Museveni era, we have reason to celebrate because of emancipation. We also have the reason to fight for our rights. No man should sit on us,” she said, referring to the women emancipation policy championed by the government since the promulgation of the 1995 constitution.
However Maj Akello pointed out that due to proliferation of digital tools and systems, nonconsensual image sharing, cyber stalking and artificial intelligence has weaponized violence against women.
She cited the deep fake technology and photo-shops which she said are causing psychological torture.
The RCC said whether online or offline, GBV is a grave human rights violation and ending it requires a multispectral approach with backing from the civil society.
“We stand in solidarity and are ready to challenge harmful gender norms. This fight is not only for the office of the RCC or the Mayor alone,” she asserted.
Akello also took cognizance of the fact that through online programs, children are being targeted by promoters of gender confusion.
She recalls testimonies from young boys who confessed being raped by grown up men when the parliamentary committee on legal affairs was formulating the Anti-Same-sex bill.
The boys were using pampers to mitigate the licking feaces as they suffered the painful and degrading effects of anal rupture from rape and molestation.
“We are aware that this is a global human rights emergency. But we stand firm and committed to fight it as we advocate for positive masculinity and put digital tools to good use,” she emphasized.
Speaking of why issues geared at eradicating all forms of gender based violence are so dear to her, Maj Akello told a harrowing tale of her own encounter with gender based violence when she was a teenager.
She was raped by rebels of the dreaded “holy spirit movement” of Alice Lakwena in 1986 and conceived as a result of that rape.
On that night in Teso Sub-region when the rebels invaded, they torched houses, looted animals and other valuables and killed civillians without mercy.
“Our house was burned and we ran to the bush naked. The rebels moved throughout the villages, killing people and raping women. They found me and I was raped. I didn’t know I was pregnant until after five months,” she recounted.
Maj Akello said after the incident, they continued sleeping in the bush and children became malnourished as food became scarce.
After birth she worked as a house girl and told her boss to keep the money because she wanted to go back to school and eventually, she joined the National Resistance Army when she was sixteen years old in 1998.
“Peace is the biggest gift of NRM to Uganda and I call upon everybody to protect the gains. We should sensitize women and girls to guard against online GBV,” said Maj Akello.
As she spoke in Arua, similar sentiments were being expressed some 800km away in Kigezi sub-region where Girls Must Uganda is spearheading efforts to fight digital Gender based violence.
Maurine Tukahirwa, the Chief Executive Officer of Girls Must Uganda, acknowledged that the current trend involves GBV trickling to children through proliferation of digital platforms such as TikTok.
Tukahirwa said such platforms are exposing the negligence of parents towards children who are becoming vulnerable to violence and harassment on mobile phones and Tablets.
“We advocate for stronger digital safety policies that protect children, women and girls that suits our country specific needs. Government should not leave digital regulation to the big tech companies who care less on equality and more on profiting and outwitting competitors,” she underlined.
Tukahirwa observed that the ICT law does not clearly bring out the rights of children as it is skewed towards protecting politicians in power.
“We want more digital safety frameworks that are built to protect women online,” she said.
Girls Must Uganda has been involved in efforts to eliminate digital gender based violence in Uganda since the Covid19 pandemic times when GBV increased as people were immobilized by the lockdown.
With the support from the Dutch embassy in Uganda, the organization trained a number of young girls under the Defend defenders program from 2022.
These included female journalists, adolescent girls and women activists who were trained in digital safety to guard against threats like phishing, data theft, online stalking and intimidation.
“Our program appreciates that we are in a fast changing digital transformation times and these girls needed to be exposed and trained on how to detect and mitigate violence online. Most of the girls were getting afraid of social media because of cyber bulling, especially the female journalists,” Tukahirwa said.
The second phase was field based and empowered the girls to identify differentiated violence targeted at different age groups and economic and social Streator.
“We have created a platform for the participants in the program to help them safely interact among them and create opportunities. The feedback has been positive, there are those in climate change, storytelling, and defending survivors of GBV,” she said as she called for more such programs to be scaled across the country.
Annet Lekuru, the Executive director of FEMINATURE, too called for strengthening of law enforcement to investigate and prosecute because technology that is facilitating GBV is moving faster than the laws.
“We have been fighting this evil called GBV for generations – in homes, offices, churches, markets, in schools – but now GBV has turned to be in our pockets. It affects both men and women but women and girls suffer more,” she said.
Lekuru explained that the 16 days of activism is one of the mechanisms to combat the vice since a lot of sexual harassment happens on phones.
“It is making our communities to suffer and this cannot go on unabated. Let us get off our chairs and board rooms, be intentional and face cyber violence,” she said.
