The declaration by the State Minister for Gender and Culture, Ms Peace Mutuuzo, to start a campaign against paying of bride price has attracted mixed reactions, especially from locals and cultural leaders.

Ms Mutuuzo, while giving her remarks during the Cultural Day celebrations at Kween District headquarters, Sebei Sub-region at the weekend, said paying bride price is one of the bad practices that infringe on the rights of women.

A bride price custom requires a groom’s family to give a woman’s family cows, gifts, money or any other material goods in exchange for a wife.

Ms Mutuuzo blamed the increasing cases of domestic violence in the country and particularly in Sebei Sub-region on paying off bride price, which she said turns women into bought items and leaves them at the whims of their husband.

Rights groups have for long argued that paying bride price violates Uganda’s constitution, which guarantees women protection from traditions, laws, cultures, and customs that undermine gender equality.

However, Mr John Cherotwo, an elder in Kaproron Sub-county,  Kween District, accused the minister of undermining their culture in favour of harmful foreign ones.