Muslims in eastern Uganda in April beat and raped a young Christian woman for testifying that a mosque leader had killed her father because of his faith.
On 28 January, Samson Mukama (40) was killed at the family house in Kashebai, Pallisa District, by Sheikh Musana Ibrahim, the imam at a mosque in Kanyumu village, Pallisa District, with two other Muslims.
Present at her family’s house when her father was killed, Samson Mukama’s daughter had testified in court that the mosque leader had killed him. ‘I was able to identify the sheikh because we are neighbours, and my father had been questioning him about the Islamic faith not leading one to salvation with God’, she said from her hospital bed.
Found unconscious
Police had arrested Ibrahim and the other two suspects on 29 January, but, because she was unable to identify the two others, they were released.
The 22-year-old was beaten and raped on 19 April for telling a court what she had witnessed. She was found unconscious in a pool of blood, with several cuts on her body, after the attack at the home in which she had taken refuge in Kanginima village, Pallisa District.
She said that one of the three Muslims who assaulted her said: ‘We shall kill you today because you are the one who made our sheikh to be imprisoned.’
An elder at an undisclosed church is caring for the young woman, whose mother died five years ago and who has no siblings.
