Death Sentence For Man Who Stabbed Four Toddlers At Kampala Nursery/Image@ ALjAZEERA
A Ugandan court has handed down the death penalty to a man who carried out a deadly knife attack on four young children at a nursery school in Kampala, concluding a case that horrified the East African nation.
Christopher Okello Onyum was sentenced after being found guilty of the murders of four children, all aged between one and three years old, who were killed on April 2 at the nursery. Investigators revealed that Onyum had deliberately planned the attack, having searched “schools near me” and “ISIS beheadings” on his mobile phone and laptop before carrying it out — evidence the judge said pointed to clear and calculated preparation.
To gain access to the school, Onyum disguised himself as a parent. Once inside, he locked the gate and carried out the stabbings in under seven minutes. The court rejected his insanity defence, with the judge ruling that the “accurate and precise manner” in which the children were killed demonstrated premeditation, adding that they had been slaughtered “like animals.”
A staff member at the nursery gave harrowing testimony about the moments she stumbled upon the attack. She told the court she discovered one of the children lying in a “pool of blood” before coming face to face with Onyum. “He got up and had a knife in his hand. He was so quick that he immediately grabbed another child,” she recalled. In a desperate bid to intervene, she hurled a bicycle at him. “When I threw the bicycle, he let go of the child and started chasing me. I ran, but later fell. When I got up, I realised he had cut the second child,” she said.
Onyum offered no apology to the bereaved parents during the proceedings — a fact the judge cited as evidence that he was entirely without remorse. Before police could take him into custody, an enraged crowd of parents attempted to lynch him at the scene, and he had to be subdued by a security guard.
Capital punishment remains on the books in Uganda, though it is seldom enforced — the country’s last execution was carried out more than two decades ago. The death sentence handed to Onyum nonetheless signals the gravity with which the court treated one of the most disturbing crimes in recent Ugandan memory.
By: Andrews Kwesi Yeboah