8. THAT MIFUMI’s work with women and research revealed bride price as a major contributing factor to violence and abuse of women and that a common resort from men beating heir wives is “I am beating my cows, so it is none of your business.” 9. THAT I verily believe that the payment of bride price renders the notion that a man has purchased his wife’s labour, reproductive capacity and perpetual obedience which is a violation of the right to equality and non discrimination on the basis of sex. 10. That the Bukedi Bye-law on Bride Price (Laws of Uganda, 1964, revised) was enacted in an attempt to standardize the amounts of bride price demanded which had gone to high levels against increasing poverty in the then Bukedi district (Tororo, Pallisa, Busia, Butalega and Budaka), however this provision is till to high for most people therefore the State is helping in keeping alive laws that are to the detriment of women and poor people. 11. THAT I have come across several cases of women who are forced to remain in abusive relationships because they cannot afford to refund bride price which is required at the dissolution of marriage and have in some cases attempted to commit suicide rather than continue to endue the hardship, or been killed by their partners for failing to refund and that I verily believe this practice to be a violation of Art 24 of the constitution which prohibits cruel and degrading treatment. 12. THAT bride price has increasingly become a tool of oppression of women because it turns them into a possession equated to a price and in rural areas where the poverty levels are high the practice has increasing increasingly become commercialized in nature with the parents of girl or woman extracting as much as they can from the prospective groom. 13. THAT payment of bride price reduces women to the status of chattel or property and exposes them to all sorts of abuse, widow inheritance and the risk of HIV infection. 14. THAT in the course of my work I have come across several cases of corpses of women being denied burial unless the payment of bride price is complete which practice I verily believe to be a customary practice repugnant to natural justice equity and good conscience and incompatible with the Constitution and therefore not enforceable by the courts under S.15 of the Judicature Act (Cap 13) and that I verily believe this practice to be a violation of Art 24 of the Constitution which prohibits cruel and degrading treatment. 15. THAT in the course of my work I have come across several cases where young people cannot marry partners of their choice because they cannot afford 60