A Muslim woman in eastern Uganda this month killed a Christian couple and accidentally took her own daughter’s life with the same poison she used on those who had led her to Christ, sources said.
Doreen Nairuba died on March 16 from eating poisoned food prepared by Hanifa Hamiyat in Nabiganda town, Butaleja District, an area neighbor said. Nairuba was six months pregnant.
Hamiyat’s 18-year-old daughter, Marriam Kapisa, died the same day after unknowingly eating the food prepared for Nairuba and Nairuba's husband, Jackson Wampula, who died from the poisoning the next day (March 17), residents said.
Nairuba had been sharing her Christian faith with Kapisa, who had finished high school exams and was awaiting results to determine entry to college. Hamiyat was angry that the couple had brought her daughter to a church service on March 17, an area source said.
A Muslim neighbor who had seen the Christian couple leaving for church with Kapisa and returning with her that afternoon informed Hamiyat, who asked him to find out from her daughter where she had been, the area source said.
At about 5:30 p.m. the neighbor intercepted Kapisa, and she told him she had attended the church service. He and Kapisa returned to her home and told her mother.
“The mother was very angry with the girl, but since it was Ramadan she did not want to cause a lot of alarm, hence she kept quiet,” said the area source, who had made a brief visit to the family that day.
During Ramadan it is common for area Muslims to share food with other families in the evening to break the daily fast, and at 7 p.m. Hamiyat prepared a meal and sent Kapisa to share it with the Christian couple, the source said.
“The daughter didn’t know that her mother had put some poison in the food,” he said. “When the daughter reached Doreen’s home, the three participated in sharing of the food, and immediately [afterward], she left.”
At home, Kapisa complained of stomach pain and was soon vomiting and wailing, the source said.
“The mother asked what could be the problem, and why had she delayed? The girl answered that she shared in eating the food with Doreen’s family, and she was in deep pain. Upon hearing that, Hamiyat shouted in a loud voice, “Allah Karim [Generous Allah], I have killed myself,” said the source, who visited the family upon hearing their distress.
Kapisa was rushed to a nearby hospital, where she died, he said.
After about an hour, Nairuba and her husband started suffering stomach pain and diarrhea and made an emergency call to another neighbor.
“When I arrived at the house the two were in bad state, and I took them to a nearby clinic where they were given first aid before they were referred to the main hospital,” said the neighbor, whose name is also withheld for security reasons.
Nairuba died before reaching the hospital, and Wampula died the next day at the hospital, the neighbor said.
In tests carried out on samples of remaining food, doctors found it contained a poisonous drug that caused the death of the couple and Kapisa, said the neighbor.
Local leaders detained and questioned Hamiyat, and she confessed to having poisoned the food, the neighbor said.
“I never intended to kill my daughter, but my plan was to kill the neighbors because of taking my daughter to church during this holy month of Ramadan,” she said, according to the source. “Our imam had assured us that when you kill a kafir [infidel], Allah rewards one with a Jannah [paradise] called Firdausi, so I wanted to get that Jannah.”
Hamiyat was in police custody at this writing, with a hearing scheduled for Wednesday (April 2).
Evangelists Seriously Wounded
In Iganga town, Iganga District also in eastern Uganda, two Christians were in critical condition after hardline Muslims beat and stabbed them during an open-air evangelistic effort, one of the evangelists said.
Ephraim Idube, 32, and Tefiiro Mwanani, 40, left Buseesa town to preach the gospel to Muslims in Iganga on March 14. After setting up small portable speakers, they proclaimed the gospel, saying Christ is the Son of God, that He alone will lead people to heaven and that Muhammad was merely a prophet “from nowhere,” said Mwanani.
“Muslims came in a big number and started shouting while asking us questions why we were making noise and deeming their prophet to a lower position in their holy month of Ramadan,” Mwanani told Morning Star News.
Before they could reply, one of the Muslims grabbed their portable speaker, plucked out wiring and hit it with a hammer while others beat them, he said.
“One identified as Bruhan Isabirye went and picked up a panga [long Somali sword] in a nearby butcher shop and started cutting us,” Mwanani said. “Many people including Christians came to rescue us, picked the panga from his hand. Though it was a bit late, we had bled too much, but we thank God that immediate help came and we were rushed to the hospital.”
Having sustained deep wounds, they were in critical condition at Iganga Hospital, said a Morning Star News contact who visited them.
The attack was the latest of many instances of persecution of Christians in Uganda that Morning Star News has documented.
Uganda’s constitution and other laws provide for religious freedom, including the right to propagate one’s faith and convert from one faith to another. Muslims make up no more than 12 percent of Uganda’s population, with high concentrations in eastern areas of the country.
