Ugandan Court Sentences Man to Death for Killing Four Children at Nursery School
The attacker, who posed as a parent to gain entry into the nursery school, was found guilty of fatally stabbing four children aged between one and three years after carrying out the deadly assault in less than seven minutes.
- Christopher Okello Onyum was sentenced to death by a Ugandan court for fatally stabbing four children aged one to three years at a nursery school in Kampala
- Investigators told the court he posed as a parent to enter the school, locked the gate
- The judge rejected his insanity defence, citing evidence of premeditation
A Ugandan court has sentenced Christopher Okello Onyum to death after finding him guilty of brutally murdering four children at a nursery school in Kampala earlier this month.
The victims, aged between one and three years old, were fatally stabbed on April 2 in a shocking attack that lasted less than seven minutes.
According to court proceedings, Onyum disguised himself as a parent to gain access to the nursery before locking the school gate and carrying out the horrific assault.
Police said furious parents at the scene attempted to lynch him, but a security guard intervened and subdued him before he could escape.
The court heard that before the attack, Onyum had searched “schools near me” and “ISIS beheadings” on both his mobile phone and laptop—evidence the judge said clearly showed the killings were carefully planned.
His defence that he was mentally unstable at the time of the murders was dismissed by the court. The judge ruled that the “accurate and precise manner” of the killings proved they were deliberate and premeditated, describing the children as having been slaughtered “like animals.”
The judge also noted that Onyum failed to show any remorse or apologise to the grieving parents, saying his silence reflected a complete lack of humanity.
A nursery staff member gave chilling testimony, recounting how she found one of the children lying in a “pool of blood” and was nearly attacked herself.
“He got up and had a knife in his hand. He was so quick that he immediately grabbed another child,” she told the court.
“I picked up one of the children’s bicycles and threw it 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.”
Although capital punishment remains legal in Uganda, executions are rare, with the last one carried out more than two decades ago.
