Leticia (Not real name) is one of the recent graduates of Kyambogo University. She excelled in Education. Looking back, Leticia recalls how her love for a degree exposed her to sexual predators. Leticia who comes from a not so well to do family says her parents were always supportive despite their financial constraints. They used to pay her tuition in time and sometimes before the campus could open. Everything was going on well for her until the outbreak of Covid-19.
“My father was a teacher and mother has always been a housewife. After the outbreak, father stopped receiving salary and life became hard. My friends encouraged me to start up a business to take me through the lockdown period which I did, I had some savings so I invested in a mobile money business. I made some money and saved for school. Father could not really help with finances as he had received a bank loan and was still in debts,” she recalls
All was going on well for her until one fateful day when someone broke into her hostel room and stole all her savings. School had opened and she immediately had to find a way. Desperate for school, she gave in to friendship advances from a doctor who had been pursuing her during the lockdown. Leticia says the doctor became her confidant and since he was highly respected in their society, she thought highly of him.
“During one of their conversations, I explained my need to the doctor and he expressed the will to help. Unfortunately, he was a lion in the sheep’s skin. He invited me to his hospital at around 6:pm to see how he could help and I agreed. I was very stressed to the extent that one would realize it immediately. When I reached the hospital, he said I looked pale and needed to do some tests to see if I was really okay, to which I agreed. While he was preparing for the tests, he said that he needed to know the status of someone he was going to be with. This left me puzzled because I literally did not understand what the doctor was trying to say. Or maybe I did not want to understand it because I had never had bad thoughts about this man. He was an admirable figure,” she said.
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“After the tests were done, the doctor came back with the results and sat where I was. He then started sexually harassing me. He held my thigh and tried to kiss my neck. When he realized that I was trying to resist when he said: ‘I thought you needed money. There is nothing for free you know!’ I pushed him hard and found my way out of his hospital,” she continues to say
She says the situation became hard and she lost hope of ever getting money for tuition. “I felt life was really hard on me. I contemplated suicide. I had become lost in my own world not until one day a friend advised me to talk to a counselor which I did. The counselor had become so good and was winning my trust until one day he asked to meet him in a motel. I did not want to put myself in danger like last time so I agreed but did not go to meet him,” he cut communication
Leticia learned to live within her means and went back home for help. Her mother got a loan and it helped for a few semesters.
“During my final year, I almost gave in to a cross generation relationship with my high school teacher. He was our class teacher then and was an easy person to talk to. I opened up to him and he promised to help. We agreed that he would lend me money that I would pay later. He then said I was free to take the money and not pay it back if I accepted and gave him leg. Times were hard and I needed money for rent, course work and other needs so I was tempted but I stood my ground and told him if he insisted, I would share our conversation in the school WhatsApp group. He blocked me instead,” she recalls
One other evening Leticia will live to remember was when her neighbor, also a student tried to rape her. “We had been communicating but as neighbors because we neither shared a course or a course unit. I had developed the habit of asking for movies from him so one evening, he invited me for one to watch one with him. I agreed because I knew he had a girlfriend who was always around,” she said.
During movie time, Leticia’s host started narrating how he had caught his girlfriend red handed with a man much older. “It was raining heavily and he came close for comfort. The guy wanted to have his way with me. I could not scream because it was raining so I pretended to play along. I squeezed his balls hard and left him screaming in Pain,” she concludes
Leticia says she has never reported any of the men to police because she believes there is nothing to report.
Disclaimer: The goal of this section is to educate and inform young people who are joining these institutions to be careful of the people they meet.
