BUSOGA – A 34-year-old man has been detained for allegedly selling off his 9-year-old daughter to a traditional herbalist.
According to the Busoga East police spokesperson James Mubi, they swung into action upon receiving intelligence information that a father was trying to sacrifice own blood for Shs6 million.
“With the help of some residents from Naluwerere trading center, Kapyanga sub-county, the officers were able to track down the suspect before handing over the child to her said buyer,” said Mini.
According to him, an officer posed as the potential buyer and arranged to meet the suspect at Bukonde swamp along Malaba – Tororo highway where he unsuspectingly showed up with his daughter to pick the money.
Mubi says the hunt is on for his other accomplices and the actual traditional herbalist who was planning to buy off the child.
Recall that in May this year, House passed a new law criminalizing the act of human sacrifice.
In the new act, anyone involved in the offence will face death or long prison sentences.
The Bill which was brought to Parliament by Bernard Atiku of Ayivu County titled, the Prevention and Prohibition of Human Sacrifice Bill 2020 generated undivided support from MPs.
The Bill was passed by Parliament in a sitting chaired by the then Speaker Rebecca Kadaga.
Atiku said Bill aims at providing for the crime and offence of human sacrifice, fines and penalties for the offence of human sacrifice, a loophole he says the perpetrators have taken advantage of.
“Human sacrifice is a growing concern to law enforcement agencies, parents, child rights activists and the general public. Records from the Uganda Police Force show that human sacrifice cases have been steadily increasing for several years,” he said.
He pointed out that reports of human sacrifice, especially of children have been rampant in Uganda since the 1990s and have continued to escalate.
“Every year, the Uganda Police Force Annual Crime illustrate that the offence of human sacrifice has escalated in Uganda without abatement,” he added.
