By Stefan J. Bos, Chief International Correspondent Worthy News
KAMPALA (Worthy News) – Christians in eastern Uganda are facing a period of grief after a former Muslim couple and their adult son were reportedly burned to death for abandoning Islam and turning to faith in Christ.
The December 26 tragedy unfolded in the Budini Nyanza area of Kaliro town in the Kaliro District after 64-year-old Kaiga Muhammad, his wife Sawuya Kaiga, and their son Swagga Amuza Kaiga, 26, “had put their faith in Christ on November 22,” Christians said.
They made the decision when members of an undisclosed church visited their home to explain to them the Gospel, Worthy News learned.
The pastor of the church, who asked to remain anonymous due to security reasons, said in published remarks that “after the three family members received Christ’s salvation, they requested prayer for Swagga Amuza Kaiga, who was suffering from malaria.”
“We prayed for the son, and immediately he was restored to good health,” the Christian news agency Morning Star News (MSN) quoted the pastor as saying.
“The three members of the family who gave their lives to Christ decided to keep their faith secret for fear of Muslims of the area since Muhammad himself was a committee member in one of the mosques in Budini Nyanza zone.”
However, on December 15, area Muslims reportedly observed Muhammad leaving the church’s worship service in a nearby village and informed area chairperson Wangule Abudu.
LIVES TO CHRIST
On December 16, the chairperson went to Muhammad’s home to question him, and Muhammad openly told him that he and other family members “had given their lives to Christ,” the pastor recalled.
An angry Abudu gave Muhammad one week to renounce Christianity, saying that if he refused, he would “mobilize the Muslim community against the family,” according to a relative who was away when the parents and son “accepted Christ.”
“Abudu said that our family had blasphemed the name of Allah and embarrassed the Muslim community,” the family member reportedly said.
Area Muslims on December 26 then set ablaze the family’s house “with gas and burned the three members of the family beyond recognition,” added a neighbor who had arrived with others too late to save them and the structure.
Kaliro police arrived after the lives had been lost and, after investigating, arrested suspects Wangule Abudu, 62, and Ismail Njagi, 20. The two Muslims were being kept at Kaliro central police station on charges of murder and arson.
The bodies of the deceased were taken to Bumanya Heath Centre for postmortem, according to Christians with knowledge about the situation.
The attack was the latest of a series of attacks against Christians in Uganda, monitored by Worthy News and other sources.
FACING HOSTILITY
“In parts of Uganda, especially in the eastern region where the Muslim community makes up the majority, the hostility faced by Christians, particularly by converts from Islam, is severe,” explained advocacy group Open Doors in a recent assessment seen by Worthy News.
“Christians in these areas are frequently targeted for bullying and harassment that can escalate to severe consequences like community expulsion, physical assaults, and in extreme cases, even killings.”
The Allied Democratic Forces (ADF), a radical Islamic group, further exacerbate this volatile environment, according to Christiana familiar with the situation.
In eastern Uganda, Christians reportedly face frequent attacks by Muslim mobs as converts from Islam to Christianity face ostracism, expulsion, or house arrest from their families and local community.
In one of the worst recorded attacks in recent years over 40 Christians were killed at a Christian boarding school on the border to the Democratic Republic of the Congo, or DRC, in June 2023.
Experts say Uganda’s constitution and other legislation provide for “religious freedom,” including the right to “propagate” faith and convert from one faith to another, but in practice Christian converts face attacks.
Muslims comprise about 12 percent of Uganda’s population, especially with in eastern areas of the country where Christians face most pressure, according to official estimates.
Copyright 1999-2025 Worthy News. This article was originally published on Worthy News and was reproduced with permission.
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