Soroti District Woman MP-elect Hon. Anna Ebaju Adeke has dropped a bombshell at the parliament as she disclosed to the house that she was recently a victim of sexually harassment from a fellow legislator while on a foreign trip.
Ms Adeke, the former Makerere University Guild President said that the incident happened when she had gone on an official foreign trip and a male MP she had travelled with allegedly fondled her breasts, to her disbelief.
“A male colleague, who is much older than me came and tapped my chest as I was looking through the mirror. He came and held my breast like this….and I was so shocked,” MP Adeke narrated on Monday evening at a function in Kampala organised by Uganda Law Society to celebrate female lawyers joining the next Parliament.
She added: “I looked around and all the men there, said ‘yah…yah, so what!’ I am just saying the House is so much patriarchal but we thank you madam Speaker (Ms Rebecca Kadaga) because you have given us a platform to air out the issues that people think should not be talked about.”
MP Adeke did not disclose the offending MP or further details about the incident. She also did not say whether she reported the matter to police for investigation.
Sexual harassment is any form of unwelcome sexual behaviour that is offensive, humiliating or intimidating and it is against the law.
Speaker Kadaga, who was the chief guest at the event, however, did not respond to MP Adeke’s sexual harassment complaints.
According to the 2019 Police Crime report, 15,706 persons were victims of sex-related crimes and of these, 13,536 were female juveniles, 278 male juveniles while 1,829 were female adults and 63 male adults.
