A former Islamic teacher in Uganda has been brutally murdered by hitmen hired by his Muslim relatives.
A 32 year old man by the name of Saban Sajabi was an itinerant sheikh who taught Islam in several mosques and schools in eastern Uganda. But after a visit to his Christian uncle Shadrach Hasakya in 2015, he decided to convert to Christianity. He was then threatened by family members, causing him to flee to Jinja, leaving his Muslim wife and child behind.
According to Christian Headlines, the threats to his life intensified when he married a Christian woman by the name of Sarah Birungi in 2016. For five years, Sajabi had received threats from family members. A source said that one of the latest text messages Sajabi received was from a relative that said, "If anything happens to you, be informed that we shall not help you, especially at this time of COVID-19. Our advice is for you to return to Islam, the religion of the family."
On July 14, Sajabi received a call from his relatives saying that Hasakya, his Christian unclue whom he regularly visited during the holidays while growing up and had paid for his high school education, was seriously ill. Sajabi and Birungi then left their home in Jinja to visit Hasakya, leaving behind their two children aged 6 and 2 under the care of a helper.
As the Christian couple made their way to Kabula near Iganga, Birungi said that they continued to receive calls from Sajabi's relative. They arrived at 8 in the evening and were warmly greeted by motorcycle taxi drivers who offered to take them to Hasakya's home in Kabula. They tried contacting the relative they had been in touch with, but they could not be reached.
Sajabi and Birungi hired a motorcycle driver each and when they reached a swamp, Sajabi's motorcycle driver said they ran out of fuel, but continued on for another 100 meters until they reached the house of one of Hasaka's neighbors in Kabula. Once there, two motorcycles carrying three men each arrived, Birungi recounted to Morning Star News.
"They started beating my husband and then dragged him to a nearby anthill, dug into it and pushed his head inside, and he breathed his last," Birungi said of how the unnamed men brutally murdered her Chrsitian husband. She added that during the assault, one of the men covered her mouth and warned her not to call for help or else they would also kill her.
"What you have witnessed happening to your husband today is for the disobedience of your husband not heeding the advice given by the family that he should return to Islam, since Islam cannot tolerate infidels," one of the unidentified assailants told Birungi. She later saw one of them cut her dead husband's neck.
Upon her release, she ran to a house about 100 meters away and knocked on the door, telling them that her husband "had just been butchered." Fearing for their own lives, the residents did not step out to help but raised an alarm, causing many people to arrive.
Sajabi's lifeless body was taken to a mortuary the following day, while Birungi was hospitalized for depression and trauma for 18 days at a Jinja hospital. Birungi was released on August 2, during which she learned that Sajabi's Muslim relatives refused to give him a funeral and that Hasakya buried him instead.
