Police officers guard the shrine of the suspect during a search on August 27, 2024. PHOTO | NOELINE NABUKENYA
When traditional healers and herbalists under their umbrella, National Traditional Healers and Herbalists Association, embarked on an exercise to register members in Kampala Metropolitan Area, they did not expect the shocking discovery that awaited them.
They found 26 human skulls in a shrine of a man seeking to be a member of their association.
Led by Mr Andrew Sserugo, the group visited the shrine of the applicant at Kitaka Zone, Busega Parish, Rubaga Division in Kampala City on Sunday.
“We asked the applicant whether [he] had been registered before. He said he didn’t have a certificate of the association. This prompted us to become suspicious and we started searching the shrine only to discover two skulls wrapped in clothes,” Mr Sserugo said yesterday.
Mr Sserugo said they alerted the police immediately after the discovery.
The police responded and brought forensic experts to search the shrine.
Kampala Metropolitan Police deputy spokesman Luke Owoyesigyire confirmed the arrest of a man on holding charges of disturbing the peace of the dead and murder.
“We recovered human skulls, suspected human bones and blood in bottles in his shrine. They are to be sent to the experts for analysis. The investigations will tell us which offences to charge him with,” he said.
Incidents of suspected traditional healers being found with human bones are on the rise in several parts of the country.
Mr John Walyabira, who is also a member of the National Traditional Healers and Herbalists Association, said the officers searched the three rooms one of which had a ditch where more skulls had been buried.
“Twenty four human skulls and human bones were recovered in the shrine. Some of the skulls were in pieces. There were wild animals’ skins and others items,” Mr Walyabira said.
When asked about the identities of the persons whose remains he was holding, the suspect said he didn’t know them, but he procured them from a colleague only identified as Muhammed.
The suspect reportedly told police that he did not know where Muhammed got the skulls from.
He claimed that he uses the skulls to treat his patients suffering from spiritual-related sicknesses.
“I have never sacrificed any person in my life,” the suspect said at the crime scene on Sunday.
The suspect explained that he has been in the practice for the last 20 years and that he inherited the spiritual powers from his late grandfather in Mitete, Ssembabule District.
The police also searched the suspect’s home in Kitemu on Masaka Road, a few kilometres from where he was operating a shrine.
Mr Walyabira said: “People are deceived by fake traditional healers that when you sacrifice a person, you can use their organs, bones and skulls to cleanse them or solve their problems. That isn’t true.”
