Uganda nanny gets 4 years

Jolly Tumuhirwe, 22 years old, was sentenced to 4 years after a Kampala court found her guilty of abuse after she beat up an 18-month-old toddler.

Tumuhirwe was filmed by baby Arnella Kamanzi's father secretly through his closed-circuit television setup. The video showed the nanny throwing the child on the floor, hitting it several times and stepping on its back, before dragging the child, who was probably unconscious by the time.

Hundreds of thousands of viewers watched the video after it went viral on social media.

The 22-year-old pleaded guilty of mistreating the baby, but said the toddler's mother hit her and this was Tumuhirwe's way of getting back. Arnella's mother has denied the charge.

Kampala's chief magistrate, Lillian Buchana, refused to accept Tumuhirwe's ill-treatment as a justification for beating "an innocent child."

Meanwhile, the toddler's parents were relieved at the court's verdict. Eric Kamanzi, the baby's father told the German press agency dpa: "We are yet to come to terms with what happened to our child. The sentence should serve as a message to other maids out there that they should not mistreat children."

Following the incident with 22-year-old Tumuhirwe, authorities in Kampala have announced that anyone applying for a job as domestic help would have to be verified by the police. The case gathered wide attention in Uganda, prompting the UNICEF's chief in Uganda to release a statement saying "any such act of violence against children" was unacceptable.

mg/es (AFP, dpa, AP)