Photo | Courtesy (illustrative)
A Christian father of 4 who denounced Islam and became a born-again Christian was poisoned in eastern Uganda.
Ronald Rajab Nayekuliza, 48, believes that his Muslim relatives orchestrated the attack as retribution for his conversion.
Speaking to leading Christian persecution watchdog organization, Morning Star News whose headquarters are in USA, Ronald said he was discharged from Ivukula Health Centre III on 18th November, 2019 where it was revealed that he had eaten food tainted with a pesticide.
According to him, the poisoning happened at a memorial for his deceased father in Kakola village, Namutumba District in eastern Uganda on November 10.
Ronald told Morning Star News he had felt compelled to attend the gathering even though his brothers had killed six of his piglets two days before.
Six months after putting his faith in Christ in 2017, Nayekuliza had donated a small portion of land inherited from his Muslim father, who died in 2009, for construction of a church building. His four brothers began building a mosque nearby.
Since 2018 villagers have been throwing stones at the church building during Sunday worship services, Nayekuliza said.
Earlier this year, his older brother, Anus Wako, began sending him written warnings to remove the church building and to stop raising pigs on the ancestral land, Nayekuliza said.
“You rearing pigs is against the faith of our father,” Wako wrote. “We are from a Muslim family, and our father did not allow the keeping of pigs. While our father was still alive, you were a Muslim; that is why he gave you land to live in, not for the construction of the church. Our family has become a laughingstock to our Muslim neighbors.”
Early on the morning of Nov. 8, the six piglets were killed, he said.
“I was extremely shocked to wake up to find six of our piglets killed,” Nayekuliza said.
“I knew it must be my brothers; that really confirmed my earlier fears. My brothers had threatened me with witchcraft as well as receiving curses from Allah. This has made me live in great fear of my life and that of my family.”
Earlier this month his four brothers – Wako, Kalipan Waswa, Hakim Mutwabule and Dambo Magid – invited clan leaders, local council leaders, residents and all family members for a special memorial service in honor of their late father, Mwalimu Sowedi Nawandyo, on Nov. 10.
“They had planned the meeting without involving me,” Nayekuliza said. “In any case, I attended because they said it was in honor of our late father. It was a great celebration. Many people attended, and many goats and chicken were slaughtered.”
As guests were leaving the celebration, Nayekuliza looked restless, his wife said.
“He told me that he was feeling a kind of nausea,” she told Morning Star News. “Immediately he started to vomit, then followed by diarrhea, with fever and complaining of abdominal pain. We then rushed him to Ivukula Health Centre III. As we arrived at the hospital, my husband had lost consciousness.”
After admitting him to the hospital, she and another Christian on Nov. 10 reported the tainting of Nayekuliza’s food with a toxic substance related to organophosphate insecticides. They filed the complaint at Ivukula police station under the reference number 5432 /10/11/2019, and police rushed to his older brother’s house.
“When the four brothers saw the police vehicle, two of them fled,” a Christian friend said. “The police arrested two brothers, Anus Wako and Kalipan Waswa, who were released on bond after four days.”
Nayekuliza’s wife said he is still recovering from the poisoning.
“My husband is better but still very weak, with blurry vision and feeling numbness in his body,” she said. “We need prayers and more medical attention for him.”
The couple has three children, ages 12, 10 and 7, and she is pregnant with another.
Nayekuliza has been the leader of a small church of 30 members since 2017. In March 2017 a church pastor had told him about Christ’s love, he said.
“After several weeks, conviction came to me,” Nayekuliza said. “I invited him again to my home, and thereafter I gave my life to Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior.”
Morning Star News contributed to this report.
