A Muslim couple and their adult son who received Christ in November were burned to death on December 26 in eastern Uganda, sources said.
In the Budini Nyanza area of Kaliro town, Kaliro District, 64-year-old Kaiga Muhammad, his wife Sawuya Kaiga and their son Swagga Amuza Kaiga, 26, had put their faith in Christ on November 22 when members of an undisclosed church visited their home with the gospel.
The pastor of the church, undisclosed for security reasons, said that after the three members of the family received Christ’s salvation, they requested prayer for Swagga Amuza Kaiga, who was affected by malaria.
“We prayed for the son, and immediately he was restored to good health,” the pastor told Morning Star News. “The three family members who gave their lives to Christ decided to maintain their faith secret for fear of Muslims of the world, since Muhammad himself was a committee member in one among the mosques in Budini Nyanza zone.”
On December 15, area Muslims noticed Muhammad leaving the church’s worship service in a close-by village and informed the world chairperson, Wangule Abudu. The chairperson on December 16 went to Muhammad’s home to query him, and Muhammad openly told him that he and other members of the family had given their lives to Christ, the pastor said.
The chairperson gave Muhammad one week to resign Christianity, saying that if he refused, he would mobilize the Muslim community against the family, said a relative who was away when the parents and son accepted Christ.
“Abudu said that our family had blasphemed the name of Allah and embarrassed the Muslim community,” the member of the family, whose name is withheld for security reasons, told Morning Star News.
Area Muslims on December 26 set ablaze the family’s house with gas and burned the three family members beyond recognition, said a neighbor who had arrived with others too late to save lots of them and the structure.
Kaliro police arrived after the lives had been lost and, after investigating, arrested Wangule Abudu, 62, and Ismail Njagi, 20. The two Muslims were being kept at Kaliro central police station on charges of murder and arson, sources said.
The bodies of the deceased were taken to Bumanya Heath Centre for postmortem.
The attack was the newest of many instances of persecution of Christians in Uganda that Morning Star News has documented.
Uganda’s structure and other laws provide for religious freedom, including the correct to propagate one’s faith and convert from one faith to a different. Muslims make up not more than 12 percent of Uganda’s population, with high concentrations in eastern areas of the country.
