The Ugandan Ministry of Justice and Constitutional...

The Ugandan Ministry of Justice and Constitutional Affairs stated that the death penalty would only be replaced with life imprisonment for those who defiled girls between 10 to 17 years, those found guilty of defiling girls under nine years of age would still be sentenced to death.
It was reported the previous week that Justice Minister Janat Mukwaya told Mukono district councillors during a workshop that the death sentence would be scrapped.
A statement from the ministry said Mukwaya was only responding to a participant's question as to why a boy who defiled a girl was treated differently when both were regarded as children under the Children's Statute.
The statement signed by Dennis Byaruhanga, an aide to Mukwaya, said the law would be amended to recognise both girls and boys as children and hence create equality in the way they were handled.