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By Steven Candia
And Muwanga Kakooza
THREE suspected cannibals were arrested at the weekend after the Police recovered two decomposing bodies and body parts from their shrines in Bbuye in Mityana.
Witnesses and the Police said the suspects reportedly confessed to being cannibals, not murderers.
Central region Police chief Chris Bakesiima yesterday said the trio were held as part of a wider investigation into claims of cannibalism and murder.
“If they are cannibals and not murderers as they claim, they will have to lead us to where they have been exhuming the bodies. If they are cannibals who have been exhuming bodies, they will be charged with disturbing the peace of the dead,” he added.
The suspects were picked during a seven-hour operation on Sunday that started at 11:00am but was called off at 6:00pm after the Police, local authorities, and irate residents found a decomposed body and skull.
Sources said the search was triggered off af
ter a
resident, who had developed a health complication, reported the matter to the area LCs, accusing her neighbours of bewitching her and of demanding a portion of her land in return for treatment.
The LCs contacted the resident district commissioner and the Police and a massive operation got underway.
The trio that included James Kityo, 32, his wife Harriet Nambogo, 25 and his brother, Rogers Kitumba, were whisked to Mityana Police Station, after irate residents threatened to lynch them.
They were held at the station overnight but Nambogo was returned to the shrines yesterday to identify more bodies.
“We went to the office of the RDC where we were given detectives and carried the search in which we exhumed bodies, skulls and skeletons,” the secretary to the LCI, Herbert Jjunju, said.
Mityana deputy RDC Margaret Kivumbi and Police chief Alany Taquin visited the scene. She condemned the act and appealed for calm.
Residents were left stunned whe
n
Nambogo disclosed that the human heart and liver were a special delicacy of her husband while the two of them fed on other parts.
Another body of a woman and another skull were discovered yesterday as the search entered into the second day.
Police were deployed heavily around the shrines in the night.
However, after more revelations emerged, the residents set the shrines and the suspects’ house on fire as they continued with the search and discovered the body of
the woman.
Published on: Tuesday, 4th May, 2004 |
