Source: The Independent
At a conference organised by the Federation for Women Lawyers at the FIDA offices in Kampala on March 29, women activists condemned the light sentence at which the Nakawa magistrate court handled the case against Emin Baro a 53 year old Turkish who was accused of molesting about 50 under aged girls and the pardoning of Sharma Kooky who has spent 12 years in jail for murdering his wife.

Baro was sentenced to jail for two years or to pay a fine of shs 6 million a sentence the activists say is just laughable.

"It is a sad day for the women," Maria Matembe of Centre for Women in Governance said. "We fought so hard to ensure that Kooky is arrested though there was a lot of corruption but we the women activists stood our ground, there were several attempts to let him off the hook and when he was finally sentenced we thought we had achieved justice for the poor woman who was murdered in cold blood," she added.

Mariah Nassali of FIDA said the incidences paint a sad picture for women. She said because of that, the women were demanding for the immediate investigation of Baro and the terms under Kooky who had been convicted to Luzira for murdering his wife was given presidential pardon.

The women activists who work for different women organisations in the country demanded that government makes public circumstances under which convicts can be given presidential pardon. The activists argue that Kooky's pardon and Baro's light sentence is an insult to the women movement and it brings to doubt government's commitment to ensure that the rights of women are upheld.

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