New details emerge on Kayunga ritual killings

A joint security team of Uganda People’s Defence Force (UPDF) and the police on Friday failed to recover the body of the second victim of an alleged child sacrifice.

This was after the father failed to locate the burial site.

Although Musilumu Mbwire, the father and key suspect, had confessed to security that he had killed the two children and buried them secretly, he said he could not recall the exact location where he had buried the first victim, three-year-old Sahum Baizambona.

According to a statement Mbwire recorded with police, he sacrificed Baizambona in June last year and the elder brother, Latif Kamulasi, in April this year.

Kamulasi’s decomposed body was exhumed last Tuesday after Mbwire led detectives to a shallow grave, where they had burnt charcoal months ago.

“I am sorry I can’t recall the exact site where I buried him (Baizambona) because we did it at night and the area is now covered with thickets,” Mbwire told detectives on Friday.

Confusion at crime scene

Security on Friday took back the two suspects, currently in police custody, to the crime scene in Jjiira Village, Bbaale Sub-county in Kayunga District to try and recover the body of Baizambona.

Mbwire told police detectives that he sacrificed his two children after his employer promised him Shs4m and a commercial building in Bbaale Trading Centre.

It is said Mbwire’s master, who is also in police custody, wanted the children’s blood for rituals.

Mbwire’s employer aged 72, who has since denied any involvement in these heinous acts , owns a big herd of cattle, 221 acres of land in Jiira Village and two commercial buildings in Bbaale Trading Centre.

From 2pm to about 7.30 pm on Friday, security, which was being led by both suspects, combed the bushes to trace the burial site of the second victim.

This time, four locations Mbwire pointed out as burial spots turned out false leads, enraging the already charged crowd and detectives.

At all the four sites, security with the help of residents had to slash the thickets to be able to excavate the spots.

Mbwire, who was given a hoe to dig up the soil, after excavating about two feet down, declared that “this is not the place we buried him”.

This threw the seemingly tired detectives into confusion as to how Mbwire could forget the exact location

A police source involved in the investigations but preferred not to be named told this reporter that Mbwire knows the exact burial site, but was simply trying to confuse them (detectives).

Unlike last week, when Mbwire looked composed during the search and exhumation exercise of his child, this time he wept as he led police to the forest.

“Take me back to the house where we killed the children from, maybe from there I can recall the direction we took when going to bury Baizambona,” a sobbing Mbwire told detectives who accepted his request.

At his grass thatched house under heavy security, Mbwire wept and shouted: “My son Baizambona, help me to know where we buried you.”

He again led the team to another site that also proved to be false. The suspects reportedly slit the children’s throats and collected blood. 

Last week’s exhumation

Last week’s search and exhumation of one of the victim’s remains was headed by the CID spokesperson, Mr Charles Twine.

One of the residents in Jjiira told this reporter that the children’s mother had separated with Mbwire and had with all her children, but during the Covid-19 lockdown, Mbwire went and brought them back.

 Ms Hellen Butoto, the Ssezibwa regional police spokesperson, said they would work with the community in Jjiira to seek more information that could help them recover  Baizambona’s body.

“What we are sure of now is that the boy is missing and his father says they sacrificed him,” Ms Butoto said.

Kayunga District Police Commander Scovia Birungi, who blamed the incident on ignorance and greed, adding that they would continue with investigations until they recover the juvenile’s remains.

Residents, especially women and some security personnel, yelled and wailed as police pathologists exhumed Kamulasi’s decomposing body.

The retrieved body was taken to Mulago National Referral Hospital for autopsy as scene-of-crime officers and other detectives continue to gather evidence.

In the incident, angry residents in Jjiira Village also attempted to lynch the suspects but security shielded them.

Background

Kayunga District is an epicentre for acts of human sacrifice, murder and exhumation of dead bodies, which acts are blamed on high incidence of witchcraft.

In the district, one can hardly pass 10 homes without finding a shrine. 

According to the 2013 Child Sacrifice and Mutilations report, one child is sacrificed every week compared to the seven cases of child sacrifice reported to Uganda Police in 2011. 

The report adds that people carry out human sacrifice seeking wealth and fortune, among others.