News

Uganda: Christian College Student Slain for Sharing Christ

May 8, 2023

The disturbing treatment of Jeremiah Mwanga illustrates yet again how conversion to Christianity is so often the occasion for persecution of Christians — both of the converts and of those who brought the converts the word of the Gospel. 

Among the Christians of Uganda are around 35,000 Orthodox Christians. 

For previous ChristianPersecution.com coverage of Christian persecution in Uganda, see here.

“Christian College Student in Uganda Slain for Sharing Christ,” Morning Star News, May 1, 2023:

NAIROBI, Kenya (Morning Star News) – A Christian college student was killed in northern Uganda on April 14 for sharing about Christ with Muslims, a fellow student said.

Jeremiah Mwanga, a second-year student at the Uganda Christian School of Professionals in Lira, Northern Region, was killed in his room at the school in Gwangabara cell, Boroboro ward, East Division in Lira. He was 24.

Mwanga was a native of Kapchorwa District, in eastern Uganda, where the Muslim student at the school charged with killing him also lived.

“Jeremiah complained about messages from one of the students threatening to kill him for misleading Muslims by preaching to them the gospel of Christ as well as converting them to the Christian faith in the school,” a friend of the deceased told Morning Star News. “He requested prayers from the Christian Union fellowship.”

The friend, whose name is withheld for security reasons, said that on April 14 he heard screaming from a room on the school premises at about 10 p.m.

“After 30 minutes I rushed to the scene of incident and found out that it was Jeremiah’s room,” he said. “Inside the room was a pool of blood.”…

The friend requested he be given Mwanga’s personal effects, including his mobile phone.

“Going through the phone, I found out that the threatening message was from a Muslim student who happened to come from Kapchorwa also,” he said. “I then took the phone to the school administration who reported the matter to the police.”

The suspect, identified only as Chengalat, was missing from the school. Police in Lira contacted officers at the Kapchorwa town police post, who arrested Chengalat in the town. Chengalat was brought to Lira to face murder charges, the friend of the deceased said….

Uganda’s constitution and other laws provide for religious freedom, including the right to propagate one’s faith and convert from one faith to another. Muslims make up no more than 12 percent of Uganda’s population, with high concentrations in eastern areas of the country.