Joel Ogwang
31 December 2008
Kampala — PERPETRATORS of child ritual murders do not deserve to be arraigned before court but should be exterminated, Mukono district LC5 chairman, Francis Lukooya, has said.
He said killing such suspects would serve as example to any others who harbour such devilish thoughts.
"If you arrest a suspect, do not waste Police and court's time; burn them alive and only leave the Police to collect the ashes," he said.
The parliamentary forum on children has already proposed the killing, by firing squad, of witch doctors who engage in child sacrifice.
Mathias Kasamba (Kakuuto) said the punishment would deter others from engaging in the gruesome deed.
Under the Ugandan law, murder is a capital offence punishable by life imprisonment or death.
However, a suspect of any crime is innocent until proven guilty before a competent court.
Where a mob kills a suspect, any one who takes part in the murder is, upon arrest, charged as an individual.
Mukono, Lukooya said, has been dubbed a 'condemned district' because
of the many cases of defilement, rape, robbery and child sacrifice in the area.
The district boss observed that life had no monetary value, adding that the draconian eye-for-eye law that would have murder suspects also lynched, was a sure way to fighting the vice.
"If a father can sacrifice his own child, how sure are you that he will spare a neigbour's child walking to a nearby shop to buy sugar?" he asked while addressing Seeta town residents on Monday.
Lukooya said child ritual murders were an alien culture not akin to any African society.
He called for strict monitoring and registration of herbalists and witch doctor who are in most cases, implicated in acts of child sacrifice.
Lukooya said Mukono, with 24 sub-counties and four town councils, was the biggest district in Buganda region with vast market potential.
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