. Chanda

DISGUSTING! That is the only word we can readily summon concerning the shocking story of a 47-year-old monster from Kabwe who has been arrested for defiling his own sick biological daughter.
The story that has shocked Zambians was confirmed by Police spokesperson Charity Munganga-Chanda, who named the suspect as Rodgers Mayayu.
The incident happened at Lusaka’s University Teaching Hospital (UTH) when Mayayu was left to nurse his 16-year-old daughter who had been admitted to the country’s highest referral hospital.
The suspect took advantage of his ailing daughter who had not been talking for close to two months by defiling her each time he took her to the bathroom.
The victim, who only started talking later, revealed the grueling ordeal to the nurses when she recovered her speech.
Our concern is not the defilement, which is a staple of local news in Zambia, but where the poor girl was molested.
We feel hospitals where helpless patients are kept should be safe havens free of any danger.
Why then should we have stories of male staff sexually abusing trusting patients who are in their custody? Our library has several embarrassing stories of patients being sexually abused in health institutions!
The latest story is appalling and exposes the laxity in some health institutions where authorities entrust the care of patients to relatives.
This is unacceptable since we feel managers in healthcare have a legal and moral obligation to ensure a high quality of patient care and to strive to improve it to professional levels.
Accordingly, many have argued that it is evident that healthcare managers possess an important and obvious role in quality of care and patient safety and that it is one of the highest priorities of healthcare managers.
In view of this, the latest incident is double tragedy not only of the father defiling his own biological daughter but the negligence on the part of UTH.
As Zambians read the despicable story, many are wondering how safe their relatives are in health institutions where other ill bent ‘carers’ are looming undetected just to pounce when unexpected.
We are made to feel that when a patient is admitted to hospital, he is in the safe hands of hospital authorities who also have an obligation to police other helpers, including relatives.
The fact that the hapless daughter was defiled several times exposes the safety laxity at the highest referral health centre in the country.
Any person in another institution’s custody is entitled to maximum protection. This should include prisoners, students in boarding schools and patients admitted to health institutions.
The UTH defilement story has exposed one ignored aspect, that defilers can strike everywhere, thus the spotlight to fight them should be extended from their usual turfs – the home to other places.
This should also be a wakeup call for gender activists who have only confined their fight against this scourge to homes.
Media reports of defilement and other sexually-related stories are now coming from unexpected places like churches, orphanages, playgrounds and even hospital wards.
The Victim Support Unit of the Zambia Police Service should have branches in hospitals to report such offences against patients who are helpless and thus vulnerable.
Activists should treat anybody as a potential perpetrator of sexual offences till they are proven otherwise. We sound this clarion call basing on the trust that has been eroded concerning the so-called protectors.
Previously, nobody would expect a parent to molest a child. Nobody would even imagine the clergy to be among culprits of these shameful acts.
However, things have changed and the culprits could hail from any background, thus calling for radical interventions if the scourge has to be kept at bay.