A Muslim in eastern Uganda this month severely beat his wife and two children for putting their faith in Christ and demolished their church building, sources said.
Hospitalized for three days were Kulusumu Namulondo and her two children, ages 12 and 9, for injuries from the beating by 44-year-old Soicha Zubairi in Muguti village, Budaka District, the 41-year-old mother said.
Namulondo and her children had visited Fit for Jesus Evangelical Church on Oct. 12 after church elder Patrick Omala and his wife had visited their home several times over the course of three months. When the service was over, she received a phone call from her husband, she said.
“My husband started quarrelling and insulting me that I was becoming a disgrace to the family and misleading the children in joining a religion which is contrary to Islamic religion,” Namulondo told Morning Star News by phone. “Fear came to me for risking the lives of my children and my own life.”
She shared her fears with the lead pastor of the church, Charles Kitinyo, who arranged a place for them to stay.
At about 5 p.m., Zubairi arrived at the gate of the church premises and asked the watchman if he had seen a mother and two children attending the worship service. The gatekeeper said he was not the right to person to ask, and that they needed to talk with the church administrator, who was away at the time.
Zubairi left, upset, and the gatekeeper saw him enter a house of a nearby Muslim, according to the watchman. At about 7 p.m., Zubairi called his wife again.
“When I saw his phone call, I decided not to pick up the phone because I knew that he wanted to know of our whereabouts,” Namulondo said. “He then wrote a message that he knew where we were staying. I did not take it seriously. I thought he was just trying to scare us.”
Namulondo said she told Pastor Kitinyo of the calls that night, and he advised her to remain in the house and not go outdoors until the church could arrange a safe place for them to stay, he told Morning Star News.
The next day, Oct. 13, at about 5 p.m., the children were outside when they saw their father approaching with a walking stick, and they quickly entered the house. Zubairi entered and asked Namulondo the whereabout of the homeowner; she told him she was away visiting her children at a boarding school, according to one of the children, whose name is withheld for security reasons.
“He then became very wild and pulled our mother outside the house and started beating her and shouting in a loud voice saying, ‘You are disobeying and denouncing the religion of Allah, and you ought to die,’” the child told Morning Star News.
Shouting for help, the children tried to rescue their mother, and Zubairi turned his anger on his son, Namulondo said.
“My husband hit my son with the walking stick several times, and he soon fell down screaming and wailing in great pain – he fractured the right arm,” she told Morning Star News. “While my son was on the ground, my husband started beating up me and my daughter. Thank God, neighbors arrived, and my husband fled away.”
Namulondo and the children were then rushed to a hospital in Mbale, 12 kilometers (seven miles) away, where they were treated for three days. She suffered bruises on her left hand and a swollen left leg, while her daughter had bruises near her right knee. They were discharged from the hospital on Oct. 16.
While they were still in the hospital, Zubairi on Oct. 15 gathered a Muslim mob and demolished the church structure, she said.
Zubairi has gone missing, though he was said to have been spotted in Kampala town on Oct. 22.
Church leaders have reported the incident at the police station in Muguti.
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.
