MP apologises for condoning domestic abuse

A Ugandan MP who sparked an outcry by saying men should ‘beat’ their wives has apologised. As previously reported in Legalbrief Today, Onesimus Twinamasiko told television channel NTV that ‘as a man, you need to discipline your wife’. He added that ‘you need to touch her a bit, you tackle her, beat her somehow to really streamline her’. In a statement in Parliament, Twinamasiko asked fellow MPs and the Ugandan public to accept his ‘most sincere and unreserved apologies’. BBC News reports that he said his words were never meant to condone violence against women. A recent government report revealed that more than one in five females aged 15 to 49 have experienced domestic or sexual violence in Uganda.