By Francis H. Murray
Police in Sierra Leone say investigations tino the death of a five-year old child who was allegedly raped are in progress.
A police spokesman said four people have been taken into custody and were helping them in their investigation. Superintendent Brima Kamara, Media and Public Relations Officer, said those detained include the main suspect, a boy who is thought to have raped the child – Khadija Saccoh - and her aunt. Both the boy and the aunt, as well as a third detainee, are said to be relatives of the victim.
Supt Kamara said the fourth suspect is the tutor of the child.
The Police also say they were looking at new information that came up suggesting that Khadija might have been a victim of Female Genital Mutilation (FGM).
The announcement by the police come a day after hundreds of people took to the streets of Freetown to protest the death of Khadija.
The protesters occupied the frontage of the Attorney General’s office and the High Court Building in the center of the capital.
The protesters, mostly women and dressed in black, were mobilized by several campaign groups, including the child rights group, Kids Advocacy Network (KAN), which have led calls for justice for the deceased 5 year old girl.
The protesters chanted slogans like “Justice for Kadija”, “No justice, no peace” and “No to Rape”.
The protest which started around 7am saw police arrest more than 20 protesters for “unlawful gathering.” But they were released shortly after the intervention of the Human Rights Commission and other bodies.
Speaking on the essence of the protest, Alhaji S. Conteh, Information and Communications Manager of KAN, told Politico that the spate of sexual penetration was alarming in the country and that it needed some radical action to effect necessary changes.
‘‘After having consultations with the family, we knew what exactly happened. We consulted few police officers who told us that investigations were ongoing. We decided to consult other advocacy organizations to stage this protest,” Conteh said.
According to the child rights activist, they had to protest because a lot of rape cases were not prosecuted.
“Last year, over 3000 cases involving minors were reported to the police, we don’t even know how much more were not reported,” he said.
The Director of Public Prosecutions, Easmond Ngakui, in his address to some of the protesters, said he had given directives to the police to speed up their investigations, noting that he was personally going to prosecute the matter.
Some protesters blamed the police and the judiciary for the delay in investigations and prosecution of such cases which they say has contributed to the prevalence of SGBV.
Kadiatu Bundu, a single mother of three girls, was among the hundreds of people who turned out at Monday’s protest. The first time protester told Politico that she wanted to make sure that society is safe for her daughters.
‘‘If we sit back and fold our hands, this country will no longer be safe for any of us,” Miss Bundu said.
She added: “Kadija had a very bright future had the possibility of becoming the next Chief Justice or the First Lady of this country, but now she’s no more. What a loss! ”
As a long term measure, the Sierra Leone Government said it has formed a taskforce comprising relevant government agencies and civil society, which will henceforth be monitoring progress into investigation and prosecution of sexual and gender based violence.
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