Eastern Uganda leads in ritual sacrifice
Students of Kaliro Teachers’ Training College act a play demonstrating how quack traditional healers dupe members of the public. Photo by Yazid Yolisigira
What you need to know:
. Police attribute practice to desperation among people and quack traditional healers
Jinja- Police have named eastern region as having had the highest number of cases of child sacrifice in 2013.
The coordinator of the police unit in-charge of countering human trafficking, child sacrifice and torture, Mr Moses Binonga, said four out of the seven cases of suspected ritual sacrifice registered last year were committed in the region.
Mr Binoga said the western region came second with two cases, followed by central with one case while the northern region did not register any case. The police chief listed Tororo, Butaleja, Busia, Bukomansimbi and Mbarara as the districts notorious for cases of child sacrifice.
He said quack healers set tough conditions to clients to cover up for their weaknesses.
“There are many quack healers here and because they know that their medication doesn’t work, they tell their clients to bring human heads thinking they (clients) will not do so,” Mr Binoga said.
“However, due to the many problems that people are faced with, they kill to get the heads thinking that they will be cured,” he explained.
Mr Binoga was speaking during a security meeting called to discuss the rampant cases of child sacrifice in the region recently.
The healers blamed the infiltration of quack healers on laxity by the authorities who they accuse of allowing unregistered healers to operate.
Jinja Resident District Commissioner Richard Gulume directed the police to arrest any landlord who rents out premises to unregistered healers. The meeting also banned the advertisement of traditional healers’ activities on FM radio stations.
