A Ugandan court has sentenced 38-year-old Christopher Okello Onyum to death after finding him guilty of murdering four nursery school children during a violent attack at a kindergarten in Kampala last month.
The High Court in Kampala ruled that Onyum was responsible for the 2 April incident at the Ggaba Early Childhood Development Programme, where the children were killed within a matter of minutes.
According to court findings, the attacker gained access to the facility by pretending to be a parent. Once inside, he locked the gate and launched the assault, which prosecutors said lasted less than seven minutes before he was apprehended at the scene.
Prosecutors told the court that Onyum admitted involvement in the killings during questioning, claiming the act was linked to what he described as a belief in “human sacrifice” intended to bring him wealth.
Investigators also presented digital evidence said to have been recovered from his devices, including searches such as “schools near me” and references to violent extremist content, which the judge said indicated prior planning.
During the trial, Onyum denied intent to commit murder and pleaded not guilty, arguing instead that he was suffering from mental illness at the time and therefore incapable of forming criminal intent.
The court rejected the insanity defence, with the judge stating that the calculated nature of the attack demonstrated premeditation. He described the killings as deliberate and said the victims were attacked in a brutal manner.
The judge also noted that the accused showed no remorse and did not offer any apology to the families of the victims.
Testifying in court, a nursery staff member recounted how she encountered the attacker during the incident and attempted to intervene. She described seeing one child in a pool of blood and said she tried to stop him by throwing a bicycle, which briefly distracted him before he turned his attention on her.
She said she fell while trying to escape and later discovered that another child had been attacked during the chaos.
