Witness Recounts Horror as Ggaba Child Murder Trial Unfolds in Court

Updated by Faith Barbara N Ruhinda at 1431 EAT on Friday 24 April 2026

The courtroom fell silent as the trial of Christopher Okello Onyum entered its first full week, the gravity of the killings at Ggaba hanging heavily over proceedings.

The trial had opened days earlier on a tense note. When Okello appeared before Justice Alice Komuhangi Khaukha at the High Court and pleaded not guilty to four counts of murder, the reaction from the packed gallery was immediate and emotional.

Murmurs quickly escalated into audible outrage, prompting the judge to call for order before proceedings could continue.
At the centre of the case are the killings of four toddlers at Ggaba Early Childhood Development Centre on April 2, an incident that has shocked communities well beyond the courtroom.

As the prosecution opened its case, Chief State Attorney Jonathan Muwaganya, together with Ms Anna Kiiza, presented key evidence, including postmortem reports outlining the causes of death.

The documents, clinical in tone, established the facts. But it was the testimony that followed that began to give those facts a human shape.

Phoebe Namutebi, a caretaker at the centre for five years, took the stand as the sixth prosecution witness. Her account was steady, but the details were disturbing. She told the court her first encounter with Christopher Okello Onyum had come a day before the killings.

“He stood outside and looked like someone who needed help. I asked him what he wanted,” she said, recalling the morning of April 1 at around 11:00 a.m.

According to her testimony, Okello said he had been directed to the centre to bring a child. When asked about the child’s age, he said about three years old. Namutebi said this raised concern, as the centre catered for younger children, and she advised him to try another nursery school. However, he persisted.

“He said the child does not talk much and struggles to mix with others, and that being around many children would help,” she told the court.

He then inquired about fees. She informed him of the requirements—Shs180,000 covering registration and a uniform. He left, saying he would return.

The following day, he did. At about the same time, Namutebi said he arrived carrying a child’s bag. This time, he said he had come to complete the process and make payment.

“He told me he had come to complete the process and make payment, so I opened for him,” she said.

She escorted him to the centre’s coordinator, Annet Odong. There, Okello gave a different account, saying he was not the child’s father but a Good Samaritan assisting a mother who had been abandoned.

“He said he would pay and later send the mother,” Namutebi recalled.
The fee of Shs180,000 was agreed upon. Okello sent the money via mobile money, even covering transaction charges. Namutebi was then asked to prepare a receipt.

“I was asked to bring a receipt book and write the receipt,” she said. When she requested the child’s name, he spelt it out: Zuriel Onyum.

Moments later, as she put away the receipt book, something outside the window caught her attention.

Phoebe Namutebi said she rushed outside and found Keisha Agenorwoth Otim lying in a pool of blood. She then saw Christopher Okello Onyum again, this time holding a knife. Moments later, another child was attacked.

In the ensuing chaos, Namutebi attempted to intervene. She grabbed a bicycle and threw it at him in a desperate attempt to stop the assault, but said it had no effect.
“He left the child and started chasing me. I ran while shouting for help but fell,” she told the court.

She said she stumbled more than once as she tried to escape, overcome by panic. By the time she regained her footing, she said, more children had been attacked. The courtroom remained silent as she gave her account.

Outside the centre, she said, assistance began to arrive as staff and members of the public rushed to the scene. Together, they managed to restrain Okello and lock him inside a security room.

“He threw the knife outside the fence, and two more knives were later found in his socks,” she said.

Police arrived shortly afterwards, securing the scene and attempting to assist the injured children. However, Namutebi told the court that by that time, none of them showed signs of life.

Throughout the incident, she added, there was something deeply unsettling about Okello’s demeanour.

“He did not say anything during the attack; he was just breathing heavily, and the bag remained on his back.”

Phoebe Namutebi told the court that the prosecution later produced the receipt she had written, which was recovered from the accused.

“This is the receipt I wrote. It has my signature and the daycare stamp,” she confirmed.

As the trial progressed, attention shifted to the mental state of Christopher Okello Onyum.

Dr Emmanuel Nuwamaya, Deputy Director of Police Health Services, testified about a psychiatric examination conducted on April 7. He told court that during the assessment, Okello gave a disturbing explanation for the killings.

“He was able to explain the reasons for killing the children as fortune hunting and enrichment,” Dr Nuwamaya said.
According to him, Okello claimed he believed in acquiring wealth through human sacrifice. However, despite those claims, Dr Nuwamaya said the accused appeared mentally stable during the examination.

“He had normal behaviour, he was calm and cooperative, his speech was coherent, his memory was intact, and he exhibited good judgment,” he testified.

He added that Okello reported a history of mental illness, including hallucinations and a past suicide attempt, allegedly dating back to treatment received between 2016 and 2025. However, the doctor noted that this history was based solely on the accused’s own account and had not been independently verified.

A separate medical opinion was presented by Dr Rogers Agenda, who had assessed Okello in December during a psychiatric evaluation linked to citizenship matters.
“I established that Okello had no mental disorder at the time he presented to me,” Dr Agenda told court.

“I therefore affirmed that at that time Okello was sane and mentally stable to live and work in Uganda,” he added.

By the end of the week, the trial had begun to outline two competing narratives: one rooted in the detailed accounts of witnesses to the events, and another focused on questions of intent and mental state that remain contested.

In court, those threads now run side by side, awaiting judicial determination. For the families of the victims and a public still struggling to comprehend what happened in Ggaba, the proceedings represent a slow, often painful effort to make sense of an act that has shaken the community.

-Observer

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