Late Nakisuyi Nabirye Zabeela
Pastor, wife confess to killing four-year-old girl for sacrifice
By Denis Edema
Policein Jinja City say “a pastor and his wifehave confessed to killing their landlord's four-year-old girl and led detectives to two separate locations where her remains were recovered at the weekend.”
Prophet Joseph Sserubiri and Felista Namaganda of Deliverance and Healing Ministries in Kakira Market Zone, Kakira Town Council, told detectives that they killed Trinity Nakisuyi Nabirye Zabeela.
Nabirye went missing from her parents’ home in the same zone on September 30 and the case was threatening to go cold until, at the residents’ insistence, police declared the couple persons of interest in their investigation into the crime.
The couple later led detectives to Wanyange Village on the shores of Lake Victoria where Nabirye’s skull was recovered- and then to a sugarcane plantation in Kakira where her decomposed torso was found.
The Kiira Region police spokesman, Mr James Mubi said the couple was arrested on December 4 after the Pastor’s phone was tracked and blood stains recovered from a room he reportedly rented a day after the deceased disappeared.
“For two months since the girl disappeared, police have been on the ground tracing for her whereabouts with the help of her parents and our investigations indicate that the couple sacrificed her, a crime they have confessed to,” Mr Mubi said.
The suspects’ landlord, Mr John Mulodi who was the father of the deceased, declined to speak to this reporter following the incident.
Some many residents told Daily Monitor that the couple rented Mr Mulodi’s garage which they later turned into a ‘Church’ in which the crime reportedly took place.
A resident who identified himself as Mr Godfrey Maliyamungu asked the “police to rev up their inquests on some born again church leaders with false prophecies that he said have led to disunity among the flock.”
“There is freedom of worship; however, authorities need to regulate such mushrooming churches. In fact, they should be subjected to paying taxes,” he said.
But Kiira region police spokesperson Mr Mubi "appealed to the public and local leaders to first find out where and why a person hails from to stay in their area before they are accepted to be part of the community.”
Body of Missing 4-year-Old Girl Retrieved from Sugarcane Plantation
A four-year-old girl who had been reported missing in Kakira has been found dead. Parts of her body were retrieved by the Police in the Kiira region from a sugarcane plantation in Jinja City.
The girl was reportedly killed by Joseph Sserubiri, the lead pastor of Deliverance Church in Kakira market zone and his wife, Felista Namaganda, who had rented church space from John Mulodi, the father of the deceased. The two had gone missing together with the child in late September.
But they were uncovered from a hideout in one of the sugarcane plantations in Mayuge district on Saturday after a search and detained at Kakira Central Police Station. Although they were hesitant to record police statements on the same, the suspects later confessed to having killed the girl; Zabella Trinity Nakisuyi, with the intent of acquiring supernatural powers that would enable them to raise a huge congregation of followers.
Sserubiri told detectives that they lured Nakisuyi to the church premises, intoxicated her with sleeping pills, before chopping off her head using a machete. He narrated that they sprinkled part of the deceased's blood in the different corners of the Church, and packed the body parts in 50-kilogramme bags for burial in different locations, as instructed by a witch doctor whom he declined to name.
The duo further led police to an abandoned landing site in Wanyange Lake Village, in the Northern division, where the deceased's head had been buried, while the remaining body parts were retrieved from Kinyoro sugarcane plantation, in Kakira town council, Jinja district.
Mulodi told journalists that he is aggrieved but relieved that her daughters' body has been recovered. "It is so heartbreaking that my child's life was cut short in such a manner, but my soul is at rest that her body was finally recovered and we shall accord her a decent burial after a long search," he says.
Kiira region's police spokesperson, James Mubi says that they extracted human bloodstains from the doorposts of the suspects' hideout. Bloodstains were also found in the different corners of the church and Sserubiri's bloodstained pair of trousers was recovered from the church's offertory basket.
Mubi adds that the duo will face two counts of murder and child sacrifice. However, efforts of tracking down the unidentified witchdoctor who aided the process are still ongoing.
Jinja Prophet sacrifices landlord’s daughter to establish powerful church
Published on
JINJA, UGANDA: Police in Kakira is investigating a suspected ritual murder of Nakisuyi Trinity Nabirye Zabella, 4, and a daughter to Mr John Mulodi, resident of Kakira market zone, Kakira town council in Jinja district.
Kiira Regional Police Spokesperson ASP James Mubi says that the child reportedly went missing on September 30, 2021 and a case of disappearance was registered at CPS Kakira vide SD Ref. 49/01/10/2021.
He adds that from the said time, the parents of the girl and police have been going to various radio stations in Jinja and Iganga in efforts to have the child recovered in vain.
”The child reportedly went missing on September 30, 2021 and a case of disappearance was registered at CPS Kakira vide SD Ref. 49/01/10/2021. From that time the parents of the girl and police have been going to various radio stations in Jinja and Iganga in efforts to have the child recovered but in vain,” ASP Mubi said.
Mubi said that the prime suspects, a self proclaiming Prophet Joseph Sserubiri and his wife Felista Namaganda are Mulodi’s tenants and they rented a garage and turned it into a Church called Deliverance and Healing Ministries Kakira.
ASP Mubi James confirmed the arrest citing that police managed to track the Prophet’s mobile phone numbers and the duo, have been arrested successfully after thorough interrogations of the accused persons who admitted and testified for having murdered the child in the church with the motive of establishing powerful deliverance church in Kakira.
Police says that the prophet had a fake recommendation letter which he presented to the landlord in an introductory manner.
”This letter, which could be a recommendation letter is fake because it reads Deliverance and Healing Ministries Nansana, but we came to understand that this Church doesn’t exist and the phone numbers in the fake letter reads Joseph Serubiri which enabled security in tracking them down,” said Mubi
”Police tracked the Prophet’s mobile phone numbers and the duo have been arrested successfully, after thorough interrogations of the accused persons, they admitted having murdered the child in the church with the motive of establishing powerful deliverance church in Kakira,” Mubi confirmed.
The suspects led police to the place they buried the corpse and police learnt that the suspects first beheaded the girl before meeting her death.
Police retrieved the head of the girl which was buried in Wanyange Lake, while the remaining body part was buried in Kinyoro sugarcane plantations in Kakira town council.
Police gathered exhibits of blood stained trousers belonging to the so called prophet, the house which was turned into a Church had some blood strains.
ASP Mubi called upon all locals to be vigilant always and he cautioned landlords to first cross-check the people they are inviting and not to only value money.
”When someone comes to you, don’t just looking at money but they should know the kind of people and their behaviors. It’s a responsibility for landlords, this one calls himself a prophet but he sacrificed the child if the landlord,” Mubi added.