Boy (10) allegedly raped in pastor’s house

A member of the Apostolic Faith Mission in Otjomuise allegedly raped a 10-year-old boy at the pastor’s house last Sunday.

According to the boy's mother, he went to the pastor's house often as the man is also his godfather, and he spent the night there on 10 September.

A member of the church who also stayed at the pastor's house that night allegedly told the boy to sleep next to him, and this is when the man apparently raped the boy.

The boy reportedly informed the pastor of the incident the next morning and, according to the mother, the older man told the boy not to talk about it. The pastor has since strongly denied this.

The pastor allegedly dropped the boy off at home, and the 10-year-old only told his mother about the incident later that day.

The mother said her colleague persuaded her to file a complaint at the Katutura police station last Wednesday. A ‘rape kit’ was done on the boy and his injuries were recorded.

The member of the church has not yet been arrested and, according to the mother, has already moved out of the pastor's house and now cannot be traced.

State of emergency

Human rights activist Rosa Namises strongly condemned the incident.

She again called on President Hage Geingob and any future leader to declare a state of emergency regarding the rape of adults and children.

"Our children are no longer safe anywhere. This is not the first time a person from a so-called holy place abuses children,” she said.

"I call on all churches to petition and protest against their own church people, as they did against same-sex marriage, to protect the children.

"The church must take a stand. I don't know why they are so silent when one of their children - and especially boys - are abused.

"This incident is not the first and the church is terrified and condemns Namibians who are homosexual, but remains silent when children are raped by church members,” she fumed.

Namises also called on civil society organisations to act.

"We have to show that we are unhappy, because the church doesn't mean much. We must protest - not only for the protection of our women and children, but also against the ambiguous behaviour of our church leaders and members."

Break the silence

According to Namises, the man of the cloth who told the boy to keep quiet about the matter is not an exception either.

"Families of rapists [often] ask the mother of a child or the [victim] to keep quiet. [Victims] are bribed to keep quiet. They remain silent because they are afraid of losing their home, job or relationship and, in the end, they only lose their children because we live in a patriarchal world.

“Patriarchs will always prevail. We have to break the silence,” she said.

"We must protect our children and women - we must fight back, no matter what the cost."

Statistics

According to the head of the gender-based violence (GBV) unit in the Oshana Region, Chief Inspector Kaarina Shiimi, 61 rapes were reported in this region between January and June this year, of which 25 victims were children.

During the same period last year, the region recorded 258 GBV and 41 rape cases, of which 20 involved children.