The Heartbreaking Story of a Girl Impregnated by Her Own Father

By The Inspirer.

Kaneza, not her real name, is a young mother of a boy, born from a traumatic experience where her father sexually assaulted her at the age of 14. Unable to accept what had happened, she was ostracized from her family and has never returned.

In an interview with UMUSEKE, Kaneza, who hails from Muhanga District, shared her harrowing story. She grew up living with her grandmother and father, having never known her mother.

At 14, one night her father came home drunk and entered her room under the pretense of watching television. Instead of watching TV, he laid down beside her, refusing to sleep in his own room. Later, he raped her, which resulted in a pregnancy.

Kaneza gave birth at the University Teaching Hospital of Kigali (CHUK) and recounts that her life has been devoid of joy since. Her father, who is also the father of her child, fled Rwanda after learning of her pregnancy.

“He betrayed me terribly. When he found out I was pregnant, he tried to force me to have an abortion. When that failed, he tried to kill me, taking me to a place where he gave me drugs to induce an abortion,” Kaneza recalls.

She was told the drugs were for her child’s healthy development. Upon arrival at the place, she was ambushed, beaten, and left for dead. Miraculously, she survived.

Kaneza spent months in a coma at CHUK and woke up just in time for her delivery. Despite attempts to rebuild her life, she remains deeply scarred. “I carry an everlasting sorrow from losing my mother and being violated by my father, who impregnated me when I was still a child,” she says.

Seeing her son, who is also her half-brother, is a constant reminder of the trauma. She struggles to explain to him why they share the same father.

Kaneza cannot return to her family home, as she feels she hasn’t come to terms with her ordeal. She urges justice authorities to apprehend her father so that she and her child can claim their rightful inheritance.

An official from an organization that supports girls in similar situations, founded to assist girls who have faced incest and other familial sexual abuse, shared that such cases are not uncommon. The organization helps these girls with vocational training and psychological support, as they often suffer from severe trauma and a lack of hope for the future.

“We have encountered many girls with severe trauma caused by their families. Kaneza was deeply distressed and had lost all hope. We enrolled her in a tailoring course, and she is slowly recovering,” the official said.

The organization also advocates for justice, although many perpetrators evade capture by fleeing or hiding.

A study by Hope and Homes for Children (HHC) conducted in Kicukiro District, Kigali, revealed that nearly all girls impregnated by relatives suffer from severe depression, with 83% facing familial problems stemming from the pregnancies.

In Rwanda, there are over 23,000 girls under the age of consent who become pregnant each year. However, the number of those taken to court for impregnating minors remains low.

Source: UMUSEKE, Kinyarwanda