Accused of burying her son alive
Mar 01, 2008
RESIDENTS of Buzzi village in Wakiso district dismissed Florence Nankinga’s explanation on the whereabouts of her son as lies and involved the Police to investigate the matter.
By Gladys Kalibbala
RESIDENTS of Buzzi village in Wakiso district dismissed Florence Nankinga’s explanation on the whereabouts of her son as lies and involved the Police to investigate the matter.
The one-and-a-half-year-old, Emmanuel Lwanga, was discovered missing in the morning, yet Nankinga’s neighbours claim they had heard him cry at night.
Nankinga, 33, a casual labourer at a flower farm in Buzzi, is suspected to have buried Lwanga alive in a potato garden.
A source who is helping Entebbe Police with the investigations said he saw Nankinga dig in her shamba the previous evening. He suspects she buried Lwanga at night.
The shamba belongs to a wellwisher who allowed Nankinga to cultivate it.
One of Nankinga’s neighbours said she heard her get out of her house with a crying baby and walked towards the garden. The residents alerted the LC1 chairman, only identified as Kasozi, who summoned Nankinga and her relatives for interrogation.
Nankinga said she took Lwanga to one of her relatives in Kampala, but could not disclose the residence.
When her neighbours insisted they had heard the boy cry at night, Kasozi contacted the Police.
According to a witness, the Police recovered the boy’s body from the potato garden. The boy had been wrapped in a sack and buried in a shallow pit. His legs had also been tied.
The officer-in-charge of Entebbe Police, Jackson Okumu, said the Police is still investigating the case, but suspect Nankinga buried the boy alive.
The officer-in-charge of the Criminal Investigative Department, Entebbe Police, Julius Ogweng, says if Nankinga is found guilty, she will be charged with murder.
He says when the Police arrested Nankinga, she said Lwanga died mysteriously in the house at night and she proceeded to bury him.
She claims to have kept her son’s death a secret because she feared her landlord would not allow her to keep the body in the house that night.
Neighbours say although the boy was sickly, he was in good health the fateful day.
Nankinga reportedly has two other children living with their grandmother. She says the father of her son, Edward Wamala, denied being responsible for the pregnancy and told her to abort, but she was afraid to.
Nankinga says her son was sickly and efforts to get assistance from Wamala were futile.
“How can God give you such a blessing and you waste it? I have been married for years, but have failed to give birth to a boy,†a resident said.
The resident suggested to the Police that such desperate people should be allowed to take their unwanted children to any Police station to guard against such cases.
RESIDENTS of Buzzi village in Wakiso district dismissed Florence Nankinga’s explanation on the whereabouts of her son as lies and involved the Police to investigate the matter.
The one-and-a-half-year-old, Emmanuel Lwanga, was discovered missing in the morning, yet Nankinga’s neighbours claim they had heard him cry at night.
Nankinga, 33, a casual labourer at a flower farm in Buzzi, is suspected to have buried Lwanga alive in a potato garden.
A source who is helping Entebbe Police with the investigations said he saw Nankinga dig in her shamba the previous evening. He suspects she buried Lwanga at night.
The shamba belongs to a wellwisher who allowed Nankinga to cultivate it.
One of Nankinga’s neighbours said she heard her get out of her house with a crying baby and walked towards the garden. The residents alerted the LC1 chairman, only identified as Kasozi, who summoned Nankinga and her relatives for interrogation.
Nankinga said she took Lwanga to one of her relatives in Kampala, but could not disclose the residence.
When her neighbours insisted they had heard the boy cry at night, Kasozi contacted the Police.
According to a witness, the Police recovered the boy’s body from the potato garden. The boy had been wrapped in a sack and buried in a shallow pit. His legs had also been tied.
The officer-in-charge of Entebbe Police, Jackson Okumu, said the Police is still investigating the case, but suspect Nankinga buried the boy alive.
The officer-in-charge of the Criminal Investigative Department, Entebbe Police, Julius Ogweng, says if Nankinga is found guilty, she will be charged with murder.
He says when the Police arrested Nankinga, she said Lwanga died mysteriously in the house at night and she proceeded to bury him.
She claims to have kept her son’s death a secret because she feared her landlord would not allow her to keep the body in the house that night.
Neighbours say although the boy was sickly, he was in good health the fateful day.
Nankinga reportedly has two other children living with their grandmother. She says the father of her son, Edward Wamala, denied being responsible for the pregnancy and told her to abort, but she was afraid to.
Nankinga says her son was sickly and efforts to get assistance from Wamala were futile.
“How can God give you such a blessing and you waste it? I have been married for years, but have failed to give birth to a boy,†a resident said.
The resident suggested to the Police that such desperate people should be allowed to take their unwanted children to any Police station to guard against such cases.