Traditional doctor, two others arrested over two siblings killed in suspected ritual sacrifice 

Police are holding a 32-year-old traditional doctor and a 41-year-old woman said to be his accomplice, following the murder of two siblings in suspected ritual sacrifice in Kirinda village, Kasega parish, Kapeke Sub County, Kiboga district.

Five year-old Easter Nakasumba and her two-year-old sister, Sylvia Nantongo went missing on Wednesday afternoon after their parents whom they had accompanied to their farm asked them to go home for lunch. 
Their decapitated bodies were found the following day before police detectives deployed a sniffer dog that led them to the home of Sulaiman Sentongo, one of the traditional doctors in the village.
Sentongo had fled his home at the time.

“Operatives tracked Sentongo, a witchdoctor via a mobile phone and apprehended him in Kireka, Kampala, on the night of April 5, 2024, along with his associate Maureen Namuleme, who allegedly provided him with transport to flee the scene on April 4, 202,” Wamala region police spokesperson, Ms Racheal Kawala said Saturday.

The suspects are currently detained at Kiboga CPS for interrogation, bringing the total number of arrests to three following the detention of Sentongo’s wife earlier. 

“Preliminary findings suggest that on April 3, 2024, at 10pm, two children, Nantongo and Nakasumba were reported missing. Unfortunately, their torsos were discovered on April 4, 2024, in Kirinda village, Kasega parish, Kapeke sub-county, leading investigators to the home of the witch doctor, Sulaiman Sentongo, who is currently in custody. Further details will be provided as investigations progress,” Ms Kawala added in a Saturday statement.  

Following the double murder, Kiboga Resident District Commissioner (RDC), Ms Mariam Nalubega Sseguya ordered a head count and identification programme aimed at registering all genuine traditional healers  in the district .
If well conducted, Ms Nalubega said the exercise will help weed out quacks who have over the years infiltrated the traditional healers’ business and tarnished their image by engaging in felonious acts like child sacrifice, theft, robbery and rape.

“Many wrong elements are masquerading as traditional healers to achieve their ill intentions which has tarnished the name of herbalists in the country. We are going to have this census to weed out all fake traditional healers who are engaging in criminal activities,” she said while addressing a security meeting at Kirinda Village ,Kiboga District on April 5.
The meeting was attended by internal security officers at all levels, village chairpersons and religious leaders.

Traditional healers have for a long time been blamed for the recurrent cases of child sacrifice and mysterious deaths especially in central region, while some have been accused of raping women who visit their shrines.
In  2018 , Local leaders in neigbouring Mubende District called for banning of  the traditional healers in  the area saying they advertise on various radio stations that they have super natural powers to make people  rich, which is not true.

Some people who visit shrines claim that traditional healers use remains of the dead to cast spells on their clients’ enemies. However, this cannot be elaborately explained  by practitioners or  proven scientifically.
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