The Funyula MP, Wilberforce Mudenyo has opposed the clamour to lower the age of consent for teenage girls to engage in sex to 16 years.
Speaking during the constituency’s Education Day on Friday, Mudenyo said the debate arose due to the conflict between the Sexual Offenses Act and the Children’s Act.
“As parliamentarians, we need to review the contentious section of the Sexual Offenses Act so that we expunge the inconsistencies in the Act that seem to punish the boy child,” he said, adding that the boy child should not be judged unfairly.
He explained that reduction of the consent age from 18 to 16 years,should not be encouraged but instead, the age should be extended beyond 18.
“As legislators we will not agree to reduce the sex consent age to 16 but we are even considering extending it,” he said urging judges to interpret the law in the most humane manner without punishing the boy child unnecessarily.
The lawmaker stated that there was need to protect both the boy and girl child, adding that the boy child seems to be endangered.
“We must start a programme to rehabilitate them because they feel neglected since ultimately,having girls without boys, the generations will become extinct,” he said.
Mudenyo at the same time, challenged men to play their roles in mentoring boys by being models to the boys instead of delegating their duties to their mothers.
His sentiments on the Sexual Offences Act were echoed by Busia Governor’s wife Judy Ojaamong who said the consent age should be raised to 22 years.
By Salome Alwanda
