A 45-year-old witch doctor identified as Muhamad Wamala from Kayunga district has been sentenced to life imprisonment for the murder of Zulaika Nansamba alias Mirembe and aggravated human trafficking.
High Court in Mukono judge Justice Margret Mutonyi sentenced Wamala on Thursday.
The prosecution told court that in 2017 at Kisoga village, Wamala with malice aforethought murdered Nansamba by hitting her head with a pickaxe. The prosecution relied on a post-mortem report by Dr. Sam Kalungi, a pathologist at Mulago National Referral Hospital.
In his report, the pathologist noted that the deceased had a cracked head indicating that she succumbed to blunt trauma.
While reading her judgment, Justice Mutonyi, said that Wamala’s in-law Wilber Ssebuyungo who pleaded guilty to the same offences in 2019 in exchange for a lighter sentence, also implicated him on the murder charges when he testified as a prosecution witness.
Ssebuyungo in his testimony told the court that Wamala and his employee, Jamilu Kimbugwe who is still at large cut the deceased into two. However, Wamala pleaded not guilty to the charges with guidance from his then-lawyer, Gastone Kamugisha and proceeded with the full trial.
Although the accused’s lawyer Emmanuel Turyomwe had on Wednesday asked for lenient sentences, which should run concurrently, because his client was remorseful, the judge, agreed with the State’s request for life imprisonment.
“There are increasing cases of human trafficking for rituals in the area and one of the victims fell into the trap after being lured by a police officer to the shrine. I, therefore, agree with the state to give the maximum sentence to the accused. This will set an example for all those who might want to engage in the act in the future.” Justice Mutonyi ruled.
In 2017, police arrested six witch doctors in connection to the murder of Nansamba whose body was found in a shrine at Kisoga village in Kayunga District. The suspects included Muhammad Wamala alias Vincent Paul, Joseph Kibuuka alias Junior, Isa Walakira alias Joseph, Wilber Ssebuyungo, James Lutwama, and Fred Kizza Ssemanda.
In November 2019, Justice Mutonyi acquitted Lutwama and Ssemanda of six counts of murder and aggravated human trafficking.
