Article By Morning Star News
NAIROBI, Kenya – Suspected Muslim extremists posing as moto-taxi drivers on April 9 killed an evangelist in central Uganda shortly after he preached at a gospel event, sources said.
Alfred Kitenga was beaten and stabbed at about 9:30 p.m. along the Northern Bypass in Kawaala, Wakiso District, after he and his wife, Anna Grace Nabirye, were returning home from preaching in the Namungoona area of Kampala, she said.
After the couple spent the evening preaching in Namungoona as part of an evangelistic team, four people who identified themselves as motorcycle taxi drivers approached them, saying they were Christians who had attended the event, and offered them free transport home, according to Nabirye.
“We believed them because they said they were fellow believers who had listened to the message,” Nabirye told Morning Star News.
During the journey, the riders suggested an alternative route through Kasangati, citing traffic congestion and the late hour, she said, and the couple agreed to the change.
Nabirye said she later became uneasy when one of the drivers repeatedly spoke by phone in a language she did not understand. Shortly afterward, three additional men showed up.
“What followed was sudden and violent,” she said.
The attackers turned on the couple, beating them severely, and during the assault they fatally wounded Kitenga with knives, Nabirye said, adding that they later took her away and left her near her home, enabling her to survive.
She alerted church leaders who rushed to the site of the attack and found Kitinga’s body lying along a roadside. They notified police, who took the body to a mortuary for postmortem examination.
Church leaders expressed shock and grief, describing Kitenga as a dedicated evangelist committed to spreading the gospel, particularly among Muslim communities.
“This is a painful loss for the body of Christ,” one local church leader said, calling for prayers and support for the bereaved family.
Authorities have launched investigations into the killing. At this writing no motive has been confirmed, and no suspects arrested.
The incident sparked concern among Christian groups about the safety of evangelists, especially those conducting outreach missions in the evening hours. Some leaders are now urging greater caution and security measures for ministry teams operating in the field.
As investigations continue, the death of Kitenga has left his family, church and wider Christian community in mourning.
The attack was the latest of many instances of persecution of Christians in Uganda that Morning Star News has documented.
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.
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