Ritual murders

Death stalks Uganda’s children as ritual murders increase

By JOSSY MUHANGI
Published August 30, 2009Eastafricainfocus

A Ugandan businessman is standing trial before a High Court judge for allegedly procuring the ritual murder of a 12-year-old schoolboy. The businessman initially paid US$ 170 in cash and promised a further US$7300. The boy was kidnapped and beheaded last year at Kayugi village in Masaka district, central Uganda.

The businessman was initially co-charged with two traditional witchdoctors whose shrines are said to be used for such rituals.

The murder of this schoolboy is one of many now routinely reported in the Ugandan media. Often, such rituals are related to promises of wealth, warding off bad luck and successful completion of mega construction projects including roads and commercial blocks. In western Uganda, for example, a middle-aged man is in detention for parading his own son for sale.

According to police reports, about three cases of ritual murders were reported in 2007 but they rose to 18 last year. The situation got worse this year prompting the state to set up a special division of the police to investigate, prosecute and crack down on the vice.

The police suggest the ritual murders seem to have taken a new twist with middle-men hired to procure murders especially of children, who are believed to be taken to the shrines of the witchdoctors where rituals are performed to reportedly appease the underworld spirits.

The biggest suspects are companies and individuals in the roads and construction industry whose businesses have allegedly either stalled or moving sluggishly. The other rumour surrounding the rampant ritual murders reportedly involve burying of human body parts under the construction foundations and basements apparently to attract tenants and stave off stiff competition from others with similar projects.

Whatever the myths surrounding these alleged practices, Uganda is opening its eyes to the reality of superstition.

While no witchdoctor will confess to openly indulging in the vice, some of them claim that the underworld spirits do cherish human beings, allegedly preferring those without scars, circumcised genital organs or pierced ears. Consequently an informal campaign has taken off in various parts of the country, besides other precautionary measures to protect especially helpless children from being kidnapped, to intensify ear piercing for both male and female children as well as circumcising the boys. This came about from unconfirmed stories that some circumcised boys and girls with pierced ears had narrowly survived ritual murders and been let free by their captors.

Ear piercing is no longer a preserve of girls seeking extra beauty using ear pins and rings but a security measure. Yet the practice also introduces another problem- contracting HIV/Aids through sharing pins.

Meanwhile, a traditional healer only identified as Kigambo in Western Uganda claims that criminals are hiding behind the suspected ritual murders to harm their colleagues over disputes like land, property ownership and relationships going sour knowing that the witchdoctors will be the first suspects. He argues that murderers now have a tendency of dragging the bodies of their victims to places near the witchdoctors’ shrines to make them appear culpable.

The special police division created to curb ritual murders has not released results of their findings besides enforcing measures like compulsory registration of all traditional healers and witch doctors for regulation purposes, banning of the healers from advertising their exaggerated powers and advocacy campaigns to ensure safety of the children. It is now hoped that the expedited trial of the suspects currently accused of the murder and the stiffness of the resultant penalties, should they be found guilty, will act as a deterrent to those engaging in the vice.

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Reach Jossy Muhangi at editor@eafricainfocus.com

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