A 13-year-old boy from Luandet village in Matete Sub County has been admitted in Lumakanda Sub County hospital after incurring serious burn injuries, inflicted by his uncle.
According to the victim’s aunt Mrs. Evel Khakasa, the boy, Charles Shikuku, had spent the great part of the day shelling his grandmother’s beans and opted to look for something to eat. He picked and ate a sugarcane stem from his uncle’s farm, who got agitated by the move and beat him mercilessly. He tied his nephew’s hands and legs with a rope, heaped dry sugarcane leaves on him and set him ablaze.
The boy who is a standard four pupil at St. Mary’s Mutenyo primary school sustained serious injuries on his legs, hands, and back before being rescued by neighbours who responded to his distress call.
Khakasa said it was regrettable that despite the injuries inflicted on the boy in the 3 pm incident, he was not taken to hospital and the grandmother locked him in the house without any medical attention.
“I was informed of the incident by a neighbour who called me at about 8 pm telling me that Charles had been burnt by his uncle and he had been locked in the house without being taken to hospital. I rushed there, picked him up and brought him here at about midnight,”
explained Khakasa.
Speaking to West media on condition of anonymity a medical officer at
the hospital said the boy had sustained 20% burns.
