Buyende District in the Busoga North region is mourning the shocking death of a young boy, Mugenyi Enock, aged 4 and a half years. The child was found dead in a cassava garden in Buyanja A cell, Bukungu Town Council, on June 4, 2025, a day after he was reported missing.
According to police reports, the boy’s father, Kinuge Enest, a 25-year-old boda boda rider and resident of the same area, had gone to Bukungu Police Station at 8:00 AM on June 4 to report his son missing. He stated that the boy disappeared on June 3rd at around 2:00 PM. The case was registered under CRB 018/2025.
A search was launched immediately. Sadly, the child’s body was later discovered in a cassava garden. The most disturbing part of the discovery was that one of his ears had been cut off, raising fears of possible ritual sacrifice or extreme violence. The police treated the scene as a possible murder.
The first officers to arrive at the scene included Sgt. Kateu Amos and other officers from Bukungu Police Station. They called in D/IP Balikowa Godfrey, the Acting District CID Officer, along with the Scene of Crime Officer (SOCO) and a sniffer dog handler to assist in the investigation.
Statements were recorded from several people, including the boy’s father, his grandmother, his uncle, his stepmother, and the local LC1 Chairperson. When the sniffer dog was brought to the scene, it followed a trail that led directly to the house of the boy’s stepmother, Namugabo Sylvia. She was the last person seen with the child before he disappeared.
Namugabo Sylvia was immediately arrested as the prime suspect. The postmortem examination was conducted at the scene by a medical officer from Kidera Health Centre IV, and the body was later handed over to the family for burial.
Further investigations revealed important background information. Enock was born in 2020, outside of marriage, and lived with his biological mother from birth until March 2025, when he was brought to live with his father. The father had married Namugabo Sylvia in May 2024. At the time of the boy’s disappearance, he had been left in the care of his grandparents, as the father and grandmother had gone to attend a funeral in Kabalongo Village.
Police suspect that Namugabo Sylvia may have killed the child, though the motive remains unknown. Investigations are still ongoing, and authorities are working to gather more evidence.
This heartbreaking incident has shocked the entire community of Bukungu. Locals are demanding justice and calling for closer attention to child protection, especially within families facing internal conflicts. Police continue to investigate the case under file number CRB 018/2025, and the public is urged to cooperate with authorities to bring the truth to light.
