Boys more vulnerable to child sacrifice-Human Rights report

Nov 16, 2014

Boys are more likely to fall victims to child sacrifice than girls, reveals the latest report by the Uganda Human Rights Commission (UHRC), the body mandated to protect and promote rights in the country.

By Innocent Anguyo

Boys are more likely to fall victims to child sacrifice than girls, reveals the latest report by the Uganda Human Rights Commission (UHRC), the body mandated to protect and promote rights in the country.


Child Sacrifice, as defined by the report, is the act of murdering a child by a witchdoctor or their accomplices in order to use the child’s blood, organs and or limbs in a mixture of herbs and other elements in a ritual witchcraft ceremony.

The report released on Friday at UHRC headquarters in Kampala, established that of all victims of child sacrifice, 62.5% were boys, as opposed to 37.5% of girls.

About the report


The report contains findings of a survey on child sacrifice conducted in 2010 and 2011. Questionnaires, focus group discussions and key informant interviews were used to obtain information from 1,451 adults and 36 children. Literature review and observations were also employed.

Med Kaggwa, the Chairperson of UHRC said the study which sought to examine child sacrifice in Uganda as violation of children rights, its causes and effects was undertaken in the districts of Mukono, Masaka, Rakai, Lira, Gulu, Kamuli, Soroti and Hoima.

These districts were selected for the study due to the high prevalence of incidences of child sacrifice therein.

Why boys are more vulnerable

The report attributed the gender disparity in vulnerability to child sacrifice to the fact that “boys’ organs are easily cut off to be delivered for ritual purposes which is not easy for the female child.”

Explaining the vice’s perpetuators’ preference of boys as source of organs, the report quotes one of the respondents as saying, “the kidnappers look for the easiest way to acquire such parts and as such seek out boys, who unlike girls have outer sexual organs.”

It was further established that boys are easily tricked and are traditionally more treasured than girls.

“By nature boys get easily duped by people, who in some cases are those living within the homestead, and usually follow them without question. This is uncharacteristic amongst girls who usually have no interest in hanging around without their mothers or on their own,” the study quotes a respondent.

Most vulnerable age group

The study also found out that children in their early childhood years (0-3 and 4-6 years) are most vulnerable to acts of ritual killing. This, it was found out, was because such children were easily carried away with little or no resistance by perpetrators.

“They (children) accept small gifts given to them or are gullible to the lies they are told; providing a conducive environment for kidnappers,” says the report.

Causes of vice


The study equally revealed that a number of causes, ranging from economic, social and cultural factors, have sparked and sustained child sacrifice. Specific factors included- desire for quick wealth, poverty, family wrangles, and belief in witchcraft.

How children are sacrificed

The witchdoctor, the report notes usually organizes abduction and sacrifice and then undertakes the criminal act at a fee.

The witchdoctor, it is believed, convinces their client that his ritual murder will make their magical rite more potent and that this it will fulfill their wish of gaining wealth and prosperity or any other needs set forth.           

How to stop child sacrifice

To stem child sacrifice, the UHRC recommended that the Uganda Law Reform Commission, the body tasked with revision of regulations, amends the Witchcraft Act to make its provisions relevant to witchcraft as it is being practiced today.

Other than asking government to stringently regulate activities of traditional healers, UHRC also called for improved facilitation of police to conduct investigation involving cases of child sacrifice.

Stakeholders involved in fight against child sacrifice were asked to set up psychosocial support modalities for victims and their families.

Local leaders were also beseeched to mobolise their communities to heighten the vigilance levels in reporting suspicious operations of quark traditional healers.

The highest number of child sacrifice was recorded in 2008, when 25 children succumbed to the vice.

However, the enactment and enforcement of the Trafficking in Persons Act (TIP Act), which criminalizes child sacrifice, has since seen cases of the wickedness decline to less than eight in 2011.

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