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Survivor of ritual sacrifice flown to US for corrective surgery
Kyampisi childcare ministries head of Finance and Administration, Ms Annet Nakigudde (L) and a nurse attend to Hope Nakirijja at Entebbe airport before she was flown out for treatment. PHOTO/ FRED MUZAALE
What you need to know:
- She was found dumped in a swamp to die.
- Her tongue was cut out at the age of two.
- The court handed the culprit life imprisonment upon conviction
A 17-year-old girl who was paralysed after surviving child sacrifice in 2008 has been flown to the US for spine surgery.
Hope Nakirijja was only two years old when she was kidnapped from her parents' home in Namayaga village, Rakai District for ritual sacrifice. She was then taken to a shrine where she was tortured and abused for rituals for 18 months.
Her little teeth were removed, her tongue cut and her blood drained regularly before she was put into a bag alive and dumped in a swamp where she was left to die.
However, a passer-by heard her faint cries and retrieved her from the swamp before she was rushed to hospital for treatment.
Because of the torture she was subjected to, Nakirijja sustained severe injuries that left her mentally and physically disabled. Her only form of expression is a smile or crying.
Nakirijja has since been under the care of Kyampisi Childcare Ministries (KCM), a local Non-governmental organisation in Kyampisi sub-county, Mukono District, which has been providing her with mental, physical, and therapeutic rehabilitation.
Ms Annet Nakigudde, the KCM head of finance and administration said on Monday at Entebbe airport before she flew out with Nakirijja to the US, that she would undergo surgery to correct her curved spine.
She added that the spine surgery would be conducted at Intermountain Primary Children's Hospital.
"This progressive deformity has significantly impaired her ability to sit and breathe appropriately, severely impacting her daily life," Ms Nakigudde said.
Nakirijja was taken to the airport in an ambulance and was laid on a stretcher in the plane.
Ms Nakigudde said the culprit in Nakirijja's case, Stephen Wasswa, was in 2017 sentenced to 44 years in prison after he was convicted of kidnapping a child with the intent to murder her.
Wasswa later appealed against the sentence which he wanted to be overturned but the Court of Appeal instead increased his punishment to life imprisonment.
"Children like Hope need to be owned and treated like any other child, we know she will come back a different child," Ms Nakigudde noted.
Mr Peter Sewakiryanga the KCM executive director, attributed the increasing cases of child sacrifice in the country to greed for wealth and the wrong assumption that one can get wealth by sacrificing a human being.
He noted that wealth is earned through hard work.
