Another traditional healer held over ritual sacrifice

Some of the burnt shrines where human remains were exhumed by police in Butiikwa Village, Luweero District, last Friday. PHOTO BY DAN WANDERA

Luweero- Police in Luweero have arrested another traditional healer in connection with fresh human remains recovered at a shrine in the district last week.

The arrest of the suspect on Tuesday from his shrine in Nansana Municipal Council, Wakiso District, comes after another traditional healer based in Luweero allegedly claimed that together with suspects still at large took an adult male to his shrine for ritual sacrifice.

Last Friday, residents stormed the shrines belonging to a prominent traditional healer in Butiikwa Village, Kikyusa Sub- County in Luweero District and set nine shrines ablaze, accusing him of killing a resident in a suspected ritual murder.

When police confronted the traditional healer in a bid to search his shrines, he put up strong resistance but was overpowered. What they discovered in the shrines was shocking, according to police. There was a mutilated human body and hundreds of human bones from eight shallow graves.

Some residents claim the human body parts, including the intestines and a leg, could be those of Moses Busobozi, 25, a resident in the village who disappeared on his way to a water dam on January 28.

Police have since taken the mutilated body to Kampala City Mortuary for an autopsy.

According to Mr Paul Kangave, the Savannah Region police spokesperson, the owner of the shrines in Butiikwa Village, who is also in their custody, has since confessed that the human liver and private parts were removed from the mutilated body as part of the rituals conducted for one of his clients.

“The search for other suspects is ongoing, with the police yet to get the identity of the person killed at the shrine and buried in a shallow grave,” he said on Wednesday
“We call upon the public to inform the police of any of their missing dear ones,” he added.

Mr David Ssendege, a resident of Butiikwa Village, claims Busobozi used to collect water for the traditional healer.

“We highly suspect that those traditional healers could have kidnapped the youth since they were very active on the night he disappeared. Vehicles were moving in and out of the shrines as the drumming and singing went on,” Mr Ssendege said.