Elizabeth Namazzi and Ali Mambule
DALAUSI Wasswa was eager to get rich but didnt know how. So he sought the services of a witchdoctor. The witchdoctor told him to sacrifice his eldest son as a passage to wealth. At sh300,000 he gave Wassawa evil spirits locally referred to as mayembe.
Accompanying the fetish baggage was an agreement that the spirits would claim his sons life along with those of 11 other family members. That would be the price of the wealth he was seeking.
With the promise that riches were within reach, Wasswa returned home and performed rituals that sealed the fate of his oldest son, Bosco Kasozi.
Kasozi was 14 years old at the time of his death.
It is 20 years now since Wasswa sacrificed his son but the anticipated wealth has eluded him.
As age caught up with him, pes¬simism set it. But his dark secret was let out of the bag by suspicious relatives and Wasswa confessed in a village meeting convened by a tradi¬tional herbalist, Kasagazi Kansaze, at Kasaala village, Luvule in Bukakka¬ta sub-county in Masaka.
Confessions
Wasswa was compelled to come clean after his relatives smelt a rat following the strange deaths of some family members.
Many of our relatives had mysteriously died and others are bedridden. They could die anytime. We suspected that one of our family members had charms that were killing us. When we consulted a traditional witchdoctor, we learnt that it was Wasswa, said Abdullah Mayanja, one of the relatives.
Mayanja, who led the team that invited Kasagazi to Kasaala village, revealed that they had earlier asked Wasswa to burn the shrines he had constructed to no avail.
During an interview with Bukedde TV, Wasswa narrated that once his secret was out, his relationship with his wife and relatives started going sour.
My wife left me. I also got mis¬understandings with my relatives. They wanted to kill me because my mayembe were killing people, he narrated. This, plus the fact that he was getting older yet the prom¬ised wealth was far from coming true convinced Wasswa to own up to his evil deeds.
Besides, he added, I wasnt getting rich yet the mayembe wanted to kill more people. They wanted a total of 12 people.
the cost
Wasswa disclosed that he had bought the mayembe from a witch¬doctor based in Kyotera in Rakai district.
That witchdoctor was called Francis. He instructed me to sacri¬fice my eldest son and told me that I had to sacrifice 11 other people from among my family members to achieve my goal. I visited him several times and paid him over sh300,000 in instalments, he confessed.
It is traditionally believed that mayembe claim their victims by sucking their blood until they die.
Wasswa revealed that out of the 12 people he had to sacrifice, he had so far managed to give in the blood of Mastulah Nawasswa, Susan Na¬kintu, Scovia Birungi, Shafik Kasozi, Badru Musoke and his son Kasozi.
DALAUSI Wasswa was eager to get rich but didnt know how. So he sought the services of a witchdoctor. The witchdoctor told him to sacrifice his eldest son as a passage to wealth. At sh300,000 he gave Wassawa evil spirits locally referred to as mayembe.
Accompanying the fetish baggage was an agreement that the spirits would claim his sons life along with those of 11 other family members. That would be the price of the wealth he was seeking.
With the promise that riches were within reach, Wasswa returned home and performed rituals that sealed the fate of his oldest son, Bosco Kasozi.
Kasozi was 14 years old at the time of his death.
It is 20 years now since Wasswa sacrificed his son but the anticipated wealth has eluded him.
As age caught up with him, pes¬simism set it. But his dark secret was let out of the bag by suspicious relatives and Wasswa confessed in a village meeting convened by a tradi¬tional herbalist, Kasagazi Kansaze, at Kasaala village, Luvule in Bukakka¬ta sub-county in Masaka.
Confessions
Wasswa was compelled to come clean after his relatives smelt a rat following the strange deaths of some family members.
Many of our relatives had mysteriously died and others are bedridden. They could die anytime. We suspected that one of our family members had charms that were killing us. When we consulted a traditional witchdoctor, we learnt that it was Wasswa, said Abdullah Mayanja, one of the relatives.
Mayanja, who led the team that invited Kasagazi to Kasaala village, revealed that they had earlier asked Wasswa to burn the shrines he had constructed to no avail.
During an interview with Bukedde TV, Wasswa narrated that once his secret was out, his relationship with his wife and relatives started going sour.
My wife left me. I also got mis¬understandings with my relatives. They wanted to kill me because my mayembe were killing people, he narrated. This, plus the fact that he was getting older yet the prom¬ised wealth was far from coming true convinced Wasswa to own up to his evil deeds.
Besides, he added, I wasnt getting rich yet the mayembe wanted to kill more people. They wanted a total of 12 people.
the cost
Wasswa disclosed that he had bought the mayembe from a witch¬doctor based in Kyotera in Rakai district.
That witchdoctor was called Francis. He instructed me to sacri¬fice my eldest son and told me that I had to sacrifice 11 other people from among my family members to achieve my goal. I visited him several times and paid him over sh300,000 in instalments, he confessed.
It is traditionally believed that mayembe claim their victims by sucking their blood until they die.
Wasswa revealed that out of the 12 people he had to sacrifice, he had so far managed to give in the blood of Mastulah Nawasswa, Susan Na¬kintu, Scovia Birungi, Shafik Kasozi, Badru Musoke and his son Kasozi.
