Evangelist Killed after Gospel Event in Kampala, Uganda Suspected Muslim extremists pose as moto-taxi drivers

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.

It should also be noted that, at less than 80,000 words, (figures vary, but 77,439 by ‘Ata bin Yasar), the Qur'an is much smaller than the Bible. (about 602,585 words in the Old Testament and 80,552 in the New = 783,037, with the total words in just the verses in the King James Version being counted at 788,258). The Qur'an is also far more restrictive in its scope of communication, (http://www.bible.ca/islam/library/Gilchrist/Vol1/4a.html; http://www.answering-islam.org/Responses/Menj/bravo_r4bc.htm) lacking the manner of extensive historical narratives of the Bible, and the superior context it provides for its commands, including means and conditions of warfare, as well as genealogical records which helps provide historical chronology. In addition, absent from the Quran are extended doctrinal discourses on salvation, especially such as are seen in the New Testament. This results in difficultly formulating broad systematic theology out of the Qur'an by itself, and its allusions to Biblical characters and events evidences that it requires knowledge of the Bible, which as the prior revelation, it must agree with.

O ye who believe! Take not the Jews and the Christians for friends. They are friends one to another. He among you who taketh them for friends is (one) of them. Lo! Allah guideth not wrongdoing folk. Sura 5:51 (Yusuf Ali)

They desire that you should disbelieve as they have disbelieved, so that you might be (all) alike; therefore take not from among them friends until they fly (their homes) in Allah's way; but if they turn back, then seize them and kill them wherever you find them, and take not from among them a friend or a helper. Sura 4:89 (Shakir)

Fight in the way of Allah against those who fight against you, but begin not hostilities. Lo! Allah loveth not aggressors.

And slay them wherever ye find them, and drive them out of the places whence they drove you out, for persecution is worse than slaughter. And fight not with them at the Inviolable Place of Worship until they first attack you there, but if they attack you (there) then slay them. Such is the reward of disbelievers. But if they desist, then lo! Allah is Forgiving, Merciful. 2:190-192 (Pickthal)

And fight them until persecution is no more, and religion is for Allah. But if they desist, then let there be no hostility except against wrong-doers. 2:193 (Pickthal)

Say to the Unbelievers, if (now) they desist (from Unbelief), their past would be forgiven them; but if they persist, the punishment of those before them is already (a matter of warning for them). 8:38 (Yusuf Ali)

And fight them until persecution is no more, and religion is all for Allah. But if they cease, then lo! Allah is Seer of what they do. 8:39 (Pickthal)

Those who believe fight in the cause of Allah, and those who reject Faith Fight in the cause of Evil: So fight ye against the friends of Satan: feeble indeed is the cunning of Satan. 4:76 (Yusuf Ali)

The punishment of those who wage war against Allah and His Messenger, and strive with might and main for mischief through the land is: execution, or crucifixion, or the cutting off of hands and feet from opposite sides, or exile from the land: that is their disgrace in this world, and a heavy punishment is theirs in the Hereafter... 5:33 (Yusuf Ali)

And an announcement from Allah and His Messenger, to the people (assembled) on the day of the Great Pilgrimage,- that Allah and His Messenger dissolve (treaty) obligations with the Pagans. If then, ye repent, it were best for you; but if ye turn away, know ye that ye cannot frustrate Allah. And proclaim a grievous penalty to those who reject Faith.

(But the treaties are) not dissolved with those Pagans with whom ye have entered into alliance and who have not subsequently failed you in aught, nor aided any one against you. So fulfil your engagements with them to the end of their term: for Allah loveth the righteous.

But when the forbidden months are past, then fight and slay the Pagans wherever ye find them, an seize them, beleaguer them, and lie in wait for them in every stratagem (of war); but if they repent, and establish regular prayers and practise regular charity, then open the way for them: for Allah is Oft-forgiving, Most Merciful. 9:3-5 (Yusuf Ali)

But (even so), if they repent, establish regular prayers, and practise regular charity,- they are your brethren in Faith: (thus) do We explain the Signs in detail, for those who understand. '

But if they violate their oaths after their covenant, and taunt you for your Faith,- fight ye the chiefs of Unfaith: for their oaths are nothing to them: that thus they may be restrained. 9:11,12 (Yusuf Ali)

O ye who believe! Truly the Pagans are unclean; so let them not, after this year of theirs, approach the Sacred Mosque...Fight those who believe not in Allah nor the Last Day, nor hold that forbidden which hath been forbidden by Allah and His Messenger, nor acknowledge the religion of Truth, (even if they are) of the People of the Book, until they pay the Jizya with willing submission, and feel themselves subdued. 9:28,29 (Yusuf Ali)

O Prophet! Strive against the disbelievers and the hypocrites! Be harsh with them. Their ultimate abode is hell, a hapless journey's end. 9:73 (Pickthal)

O ye who believe! Fight those of the disbelievers who are near to you, and let them find harshness in you, and know that Allah is with those who keep their duty (unto Him). 9:123 (Pickthal)

Now when ye meet in battle those who disbelieve, then it is smiting of the necks until, when ye have routed them, then making fast of bonds; and afterward either grace or ransom till the war lay down its burdens. That (is the ordinance). And if Allah willed He could have punished them (without you) but (thus it is ordained) that He may try some of you by means of others. And those who are slain in the way of Allah, He rendereth not their actions vain. 47:4 (Pickthal)

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