How detectives solved kidnap, murder of boy

Muguluma Kintu Mapeera reveals Edwin Mugulumas grave.

What you need to know:

  • Edwin Muguluma, a five-year-old son of Luzinda Nsubuga, a boda boda rider, disappeared from his parents’ rental in Lungujja, a Kampala suburb.
  • Mapeera was later seen carrying a mattress into a special hire taxi that was then driven away.
  • Though there were rumours of involvement of a one Dr Emmanuel Nadhome, the Proprietor of Life Care Clinic, he had not been arrested.
  • Mapeera’s portrait in the media caught the attention of a witchdoctor in Masaka, who then called the police and identified Mapeera as the person who had visited him two weeks earlier together with his mother for a cleansing after he allegedly killed a neighbour’s child.

On July 3, 2016, Edwin Muguluma, a five-year-old son of Luzinda Nsubuga, a boda boda rider, disappeared from his parents’ rental in Lungujja, a Kampala suburb.

The disappearance of Muguluma highlighted the old practice of child sacrifice that had escaped public attention and had also been ignored by authorities for a long time.

After several hours of fruitless searching, Muguluma’s father reported a case of disappearance at Old Kampala Police Station, Ref. No. SD/22/68/06.

In the wake of the disappearance, Luzinda Nsubuga’s neighbour, Kintu Mapeera, who had been at home when the boy went missing, was accused of having had a hand in the disappearance.
He was arrested and locked up at Old Kampala Police Station.
Muguluma, a pupil of Step by Step Nursery School in Lungujja, disappeared for two weeks without a trace and efforts by his parents and villagers to find him were futile.

Some neighbours saw Mapeera lure little Muguluma, who always referred to him as uncle, into his house.
Mapeera was later seen carrying a mattress into a special hire taxi that was then driven away.

However, it was the disappearance of Muguluma for more than two weeks that unsettled the family. The father, accompanied by Madinah Nabakooza, the mother, continued to create awareness about the disappearance of their son.

At the time, the police seemed unbothered and were taking their time to investigate the case or locate the boy or recover his remains.
The public accused Old Kampala police of complicity.
The persistent public agitation and accusation of bias against the police forced the Inspector General of Police, Gen Kale Kayihura, to call in a different set of investigators.

The case file was handed over to Peruth Karungi and William Ocen to investigate the kidnap and disappearance of Edwin Muguluma.
Though there were rumours of involvement of a one Dr Emmanuel Nadhome, the Proprietor of Life Care Clinic, he had not been arrested.
Meanwhile, the police had taken Mapeera to the Violent Crime Crack Unit (VCCU) at Kireka, just outside Kamala, to force him to confess to the kidnap, but they failed.
Muguluma remained missing!

However, when Karungi and Ocen took over the case file, they decided to take a different stance. They befriended Mapeera to try and find the whereabouts of little Muguluma. But Mapeera remained adamant.
In the subsequent weeks, Mapeera’s picture appeared in the local press as the main suspect in the murder of Muguluma.

Breakthrough in investigation
Mapeera’s portrait in the media caught the attention of a witchdoctor in Masaka, who then called the police and identified Mapeera as the person who had visited him two weeks earlier together with his mother for a cleansing after he allegedly killed a neighbour’s child.
On receiving this vital information, police arrested Mapeera’s mother, who confessed that, indeed, her son went to her and told her that he had killed a child and that he needed help, which prompted the mother to take him to see a witchdoctor in Masaka.

“Kintu Mapeera wanted to be protected against possible arrest,” a police officer, who preferred anonymity because he is not authorised to speak to the media, says. Police then drove Mapeera together with his mother to Masaka to meet the witchdoctor where they had gone for cleansing.
“When we reached the shrine in Masaka, the witchdoctor identified both Kintu Mapeera and the mother as the people who had gone to her for a cleansing,” the officer says.

On hearing the witchdoctor, Mapeera went silent.
On the way back, the detectives engaged Mapeera and he opened up, but requested the detectives to spare his mother, saying she was not party to the whole saga.
“I am sorry it has happened, I did it,” Mapeera told the detectives.
“So someone had to take a charge and caution with the suspect,” the detective says.

As soon as the police officers agreed to Mapeera’s request, he promised to take them where he had buried the boy’s remains.
Mapeera confessed that he had been convinced by a one Dr Emmanuel Nadhome that he had spirits that were disturbing him and needed to be appeased.
“The doctor wanted to appease the spirits so that they could stop disturbing him,” the detective adds.

Dr Nadhome had promised to give Mapeera Shs300,000 and got him a phone line 0774193615, which Mapeera would use whenever he wanted to call him.
Mapeera told the detectives that when he lured the child into the house, he wrapped him in a mattress not to raise other people’s attention.
He then called a special hire taxi driver, a one Lazarus Kafeero, and they drove off to Dr Nadhome’s Life Care Clinic.

He said the doctor administered chloroform to little Muguluma to make him unconscious before mutilating him.
After the ritual, Dr Nadhome allegedly told Mapeera to take the body away. But unsure of where to take the remains, he drove to his parents’ home in Masanafu where he buried the remains behind the house under a jackfruit tree.
“Kintu Mapeera led us to his parents’ home in Masanafu where he had stealthily buried the remains of the deceased and showed us the shallow grave where he had buried the boy. The grave had been covered with dry leaves,” the detective recalls.
Mapeera then showed the detectives a white bed sheet in which he had carried the deceased.

Police went back and sought court orders for an exhumation, which was granted.
The next day, before the full glare of cameras, little Muguluma’s body was exhumed by police pathologists sending villagers, who had gathered to see what police was doing, into uncontrolled wailing. The decomposing body was infested with maggots.
Nsubuga fainted after his son’s remains were exhumed ending nearly two weeks of a heart-breaking search.

The remains were taken to the City Council mortuary in Mulago for examination with pathologists indicting that Muguluma had died from strangulation.

The police then arrested Dr Nadhome and Kafeero, the special hire taxi driver, and locked them at Old Kampala Police Station.
The group was charged with kidnap and murder of Muguluma in Mwanga II Court and remanded to Luzira Prisons in Kampala
But on March 11, 2007, the then Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP), Mr Richard Buteera, withdrew charges of kidnap and murder against Dr Nadhome and Kafeero because there was no proof pinning them to the alleged crime.
Magistrate Charles Yeteise had no option but to release the two against protests by police that they had a robust case, leaving only Mapeera to face charges of kidnap and murder.

After their release, Nsubuga, Muguluma’s father, went into hiding, claiming there were people trailing him.
Nsubuga and wife Nabakooza later agreed to separate for fear of reprisal and have since lived separate lives.

Trial
Mapeera was convicted on his own plea of guilty and sentenced on November 2010 to spend 70 years in jail for the kidnap and murder of Muguluma.
But after the conviction, Mapeera changed his statement claiming that Muguluma was not sacrificed but he was accidentally run-over by a car.

Upon the discovery of Muguluma’s remains and arraigning in court of the suspects, the Inspector General of Police, Gen Kale Kayihura, commended detectives Karungi and Ocen at a media briefing.
However, to date, the two detectives have never received the said commendation of a certificate and Shs1 million for a job well done.

Other cases of kidnap and murder of children
October 27, 2008: Businessman Kato Kajubi, a witchdoctor Umaru Kateregga and his wife Mariam Nabukeera were arrested for the kidnap and murder of Joseph Kasirye, a minor in Kayugi Village, Masaka District. Kajubi was sentenced to life imprisonment but Kateregga and Nabukeera were used by government as State witnesses to pin Kajubi for the murder.

July 5, 2009: Steven Emmanuel Kironde left his grand child at home and found him later sacrificed with his tongue removed.

February, 2009: George Mukisa, four, from Iganga District, was kidnapped by a witchdoctor and castrated. The witchdoctor later abandoned him in the bush from where his parents recovered him and took him to hospital. He now uses a tube to pass urine.

October 2009: Allan Ssembatya, seven, from Mukono District was kidnapped on his way from school for human sacrifice but he managed to escape from his captors and got home.