Four arrested over beheading 12-year-old school girl

Mr Fred Enanga, the police spokesman (pictured), says the suspects were arrested after detectives examined Geoffrey Mubega’s (key suspect) telephone communication. Mubega was last week lynched by residents who reportedly found him carrying a fresh head said to be that of the beheaded girl. File photo

KAMPALA. Last Wednesday, news spread in Buninga village, Lwamata Sub-county in Kiboga District that 12-year-old Jayirisi Niwemurungyi had been beheaded. This prompted a manhunt for the suspects.
The manhunt led to Geoffrey Mubega, who was carrying a polythene bag with the deceased’s head wrapped in it. The mob took the law into their hands, beating Mubega to death and burning his body.
Police have since arrested four people suspected to have been Mubega’s accomplices. It is believed that the five waylaid Niwemurungyi as she was walking to Kyamakora Primary School. She was in Primary Five.
Mr Fred Enanga, the police spokesman, says the suspects were arrested after detectives examined Mubega’s telephone communication.
“We recovered a mobile phone and reviewed the communications he (Mubega) made before he cut off the girl’s head. It was found that the four had a hand in the gruesome act. We suspect it was intended for human sacrifice,” Mr Enanga said in an interview with Daily Monitor at Naguru on Monday.
He added that the four suspects travelled from Busoga to Kiboga District which is 200 kms away to carry out the ritual sacrifice.
He said the suspects are being held on charges related to Niwemurungyi’s murder.
“The case has been transferred to Kibuli Criminal Investigations and Intelligence Directorate for better management,” Mr Enanga said.
Police later recovered other remains of Niwemurungyi within the vicinity and handed them over to her parents, Mr Patrick Byanywana and Ms Merabu Kyankazi in Kiboga District, for burial.

Human sacrifice
Cases of human sacrifice for ritual purposes are on the rise in central Uganda despite security agencies’ efforts to curb them.
According to a report on child sacrifice released on November 2, 2014 the most sought after body parts are heads, genital parts, blood, hearts, fingers, and hands.
The report indicates that most culprits are the wealthy, mostly business people from Kampala, as the main abettors of the practice.
In 2012, Godfrey Kato Kajubi, a Kampala businessman, was convicted for the crime of murdering 12-year-old Joseph Kasirye, whose body parts were supposedly used in ritualistic sacrifice.