Police in Uganda are investigating an incident where a man is accused of killing his relative and chopping off his head.
According to Kampala Metropolitan Police, the young man was arrested after members of the public observed him carrying a severed head.
It was then that the police apprehended the man and escorted him to the police station in the full glare of the media.
“We got information that somebody was carrying a human head in a small bag. We responded immediately and indeed, we got the person with the human head and arrested him,” Kampala Metropolitan Police PRO Patrick Onyango said.
Upon further interrogation, Onyango said the suspect claimed that he was coerced into committing the killing by a Kampala businessman.
It is said that the businessman in question connected with the suspect through WhatsApp and promised to help him join the Illuminati.
However, the businessman said for the suspect to join the group, he had to come with the head of a close relative.
“He [suspect] went and convinced his younger brother who is about six years old, took him to the bush and chopped off his head. After chopping off the head, he threw the rest of the body into the river,” Onyango told the press.
Still in Uganda, an unidentified man was arrested as he tried to access Parliament premises with a human head in his bag.
Following his arrest, the man was found in possession of a head that belonged to a child and had been severed at the neck.
According to the acting director of communications to Parliament, Hellen Kaweesa, the man walked to parliament and said he had a gift to deliver to someone.
“The security personnel were inquisitive and asked what gift it was and he didn’t say, on checking him they found a human head in his items,” Kaweesa said.
Parliament police handed over the suspect to the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) of Kibuli where he was questioned and booked into police custody.
In recent years, cases of human sacrifices have spiked in Uganda despite authorities enacting tough laws and threatening death sentences.
According to officials, 132 incidents of human sacrifices were recorded between 2019 and 2021; 22 sacrifices in 2019, 45 in 2020 and 65 in 2021.
Most victims of such ritual sacrifices are children, apparently because they are easier to abduct and seen as pure and of higher ritual value.
