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Survivor of ritual sacrifice suffers trauma
The suspects are bundled onto a police pick-up truck after they were arrested on May 12 . PHOTO | FRED MUZAALE
What you need to know:
- New law. Parliament last week passed the Prevention and Prohibition of Human Sacrifice Act. The legislation, which is pending a presidential assent, provides a death sentence as highest penalty for any person convicted of the offence.
Eight-year-old Salma keeps breaking down as she interacts with fellow children during break time.
Kwagala, who lives at Kyampisi Childcare Ministries in Kyampisi Sub-county, Mukonjo District, is still horrified by a past tragedy.
A month ago, she survived a ritual sacrifice in Kayunga District, but her two siblings never made it.
Their father, Musilumu Mbwire, allegedly killed them after being promised Shs4 million and a commercial building.
Mbwire, a resident of Jjiira Village in Bbaale Sub-county in Kayunga District, was reportedly only given Shs100,000 for the crime. He was later arrested.
Kwagala is yet to recover from the trauma. Sometimes she gets hallucinations and walks around the dormitory at night.
Mr Peter Sewakiryanga, the executive director of Kyampisi Childcare Ministries, took her for rehabilitation.
“Kwagala’s father was arrested and there are no close relatives to look after her, so we took her up so that she can get a bright future,” Mr Sewakiryanga says.
He says Kwagala is also being prepared to start school at the centre.
The eight-year-old lives with 620 other children, many of whom victims of ritual sacrifice.
When Kwagala starts narrating what happened to her siblings, she cannot contain her emotions.
On different occasions, she realised that her younger brother, Latif,7, and Sahum, 3, were missing from home.
“My two brothers and I were living with our father. However, one morning in June last year, I realised that Sahum was missing,” Salma says sobbing.
“I wondered where he had gone, so I asked my father about it. My father angrily answered that he had been taken by our aunt,” she adds.
According to police, Mbwire picked the children from their mother’s home in Mayuge District and took them to Bbaale Sub-county in Kayunga District. The couple separated last year.
In April this year, Kwagala also found out that Latif was missing.
She again asked her father about his whereabouts and was told he had joined their brother at their aunt’s home in Bbaale Sub-county .
“I believed what my father told me about my brothers until I was told that he had killed them,” Salma says.
She witnessed the exhumation of Sahum’s body.
Mbwire and his co-accused, Viatori Shamiti, last week appeared before the Kayunga Chief Magistrate, Ms Sarah Tusiime. They were charged with one count of murder and child trafficking.
They were not allowed to enter any plea and were remanded to Nakifuma prison.
Shamiti denies any involvement but Mbwire insists they committed the offence together.
Mr Sewakiryanga hopes that Salma will testify in court against the suspects.
“We are trying to see if we can use her as a witness to pin her father since the key witness (Sahum) is dead. We are also supporting the police in the investigations to make sure there is corroboration of the gathered evidence,” Mr Sewakiryanga says.
He adds that many cases of human sacrifice are lost in court because the police do not gather enough evidence.
Mr Sewakiryanga blames the rampant cases of human sacrifice on poverty.
