Security officials in Kayunga district, located in the central region of Uganda, have embarked on a intensive search for a Muslim father in Bwetyaba village, suspected of hanging his wife and children because they received Christ as their personal Lord and Savior after attending church services recently.
Police registered this traumatizing incident as a homicide case (SD REF 27/27/12/2021), and speaking to media reporters, the council chairperson said the deceased suffered severe head and neck injuries before death.
Morningstar News (MSN), a US-based persecution watchdog, revealed in a report published last week that Shamira Nakato was on 28 December, 2021 found hanged with her two children, ages 3 and 8, in their house, after area residents witnessed signs of violence against her by her husband identified as Hamidu Kasimbi.
Nakato was 27.
She had been invited by a friend to attend a Christmas service on Dec. 25, which she did together with her children. According to MSN, her husband was at that time away on a two-day trip.
“At the end of the service, Nakato remained behind and told me that he she had a deep conviction to embrace Christ after the prayer of Christmas Day,” the pastor of the church, unidentified for security reasons, told media. “I then prayed for her and invited her for a special prayer day on Monday, Dec. 27.”
Nakato’s 8-year-old child also received Christ, the pastor said.
Area residents that spoke to media are quoted by MSN as saying while Nakato and her children were attending the service on Dec. 27, her husband arrived home earlier than expected, and was told his wife was seen attending church services on two consecutive days with the Christian neighbor.
Hamidu was also told she might be gone to another service. He immediately left the house and went to the church site.
“When he entered the church, his wife and the children were seated at the back,” the pastor told MSN. “He pulled her out of the church, and about 100 meters away, a member saw him beat his wife.”
At mid-day, another neighbor heard screaming from Kasimbi’s house, the pastor told MSN. At about 4 p.m., a neighbor saw two men wearing Islamic prayer caps outside Kasimbi’s house putting together an undefined wooden structure.
Late at night, area residents heard brief screaming in Kasimbi’s house, the neighbor told MSN. When he went to the house early the next morning (Dec. 28) to borrow a tool for cutting firewood, he did not find anyone at the compound.
The neighbor said the door was unlocked, so he entered the house and found Nakato and her two children hanged. The wooden structure built earlier appeared to have been used to elevate the victims before hanging, he said.
“I made an alarm that brought area residents, including the chairperson of Local Council 1, Fred Sekatonya, rushing to the scene,” he said. “Later the police arrived from Bukaloto police post, and the three bodies were carried to Kayunga Hospital for postmortem.”
The results of the portmortem were unknown, but the neighbor noted other injuries indicating that one or more of the victims might have been strangled before being hung.
