By Aggrey Baba
Right infront of some of the legislators she was accusing, Uganda National Students Association (UNSA) president Sheila Ainembabazi on Monday accused some MPs, lecturers and teachers of preying on hungry female students, exploiting their financial desperation to draw them into sexual relationships that expose them to HIV.
Appearing before Parliament’s HIV Committee chaired by MP Stephen Kisa, Ainembabazi delivered a stinging message to lawmakers, warning that the country’s fight against HIV would remain a gamble if Uganda continued educating girls about sexual behaviour while ignoring the powerful men allegedly exploiting their vulnerability.
She told Parliament that some students in universities and other institutions are struggling to afford food, accommodation, transport and basic necessities, leaving them vulnerable to men who use their financial muscle to sleep with them.
“Who infects those people with HIV?” she asked, before pointing to older men, including lecturers, teachers and members of Parliament, whom she accused of taking advantage of young people struggling to survive.
“I have received many cases of hunger among students in secondary schools and universities. Students are there in hostels dying of hunger,” Ainembabazi said.
She argued that some men who should be protecting and mentoring young people instead exploit their positions and financial advantage to draw vulnerable girls into relationships in which the girls may have little power to negotiate safe sex.
Ainembabazi also said the problem goes beyond universities, citing reports of sexual exploitation involving landlords, people in positions of authority and even cases of incest within families.
She warned that a girl who depends on a man for food, rent or transport may find it difficult to refuse his sexual demands or insist uses a condom.
Ainembabazi urged Parliament to broaden the fight against HIV by confronting those who exploit young girls instead of placing the responsibility for prevention almost entirely on young people.
Her warning came as she presented figures indicating that Uganda recorded approximately 37,000 new HIV infections in 2024, with young people aged 15 to 24 accounting for about 14,000.
Young women accounted for approximately 11,000 of those infections, compared with 3,000 among young men, according to the statistics presented during her submission.
She said the disparity should force authorities to examine the economic desperation and unequal power relations that leave girls particularly vulnerable.
Ainembabazi was careful to distinguish between poverty and the actual transmission of HIV, arguing that hunger does not itself cause infection but can push girls into circumstances in which they struggle to make independent decisions about sex.
She challenged parents, teachers, lecturers and mentors to take responsibility for protecting young people, saying sensitization campaigns would achieve little if the very people expected to guide learners were among those exploiting them. (For comments on this story, get back to us on 0705579994 [WhatsApp line], 0779411734 & 041 4674611 or email us at mulengeranews@gmail.com).
