Woman throws children in stream after husband disappears with food money

Kitgum, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | Kitgum police are holding a woman for allegedly dumping her eight months old twin boys in a fast-flowing stream. The suspect is Lily Oyella, a resident of Bipong village in Oryang Parish in Labongo Amida sub county.

The mother of six reportedly dumped the children in Auch stream, some 500 meters away from her home at about 6 pm on Saturday evening after a quarrel with her husband. Wilfred Nyeko, the Labongo Amida sub county LC 3 chairperson told Uganda Radio Network in an interview that one of the children drowned in the stream while the other was rescued unconscious by locals.

Nyeko says trouble started on Friday when the suspect waited for her husband whom she had sent with an unspecified amount of money to buy food for the family for Independence Day celebrations in vain. He notes that the suspect’s husband identified as Kenneth Ochol instead used all the money to drink alcohol leaving his family to spend the day without food.

According to Nyeko, Ochol returned home on Saturday morning but disappeared shortly after his wife confronted him. He says the infuriated woman took an irrational decision to dump the children in the stream to purportedly relieve her of the burden of keeping them since their father had absconded from his responsibilities.

The suspect was picked up in the evening and locked up at Kitgum central police station pending investigations while her husband is on the run according to Nyeko. He adds that one of the children who survived the incident is receiving treatment at Kitgum general hospital while the deceased’s body is lying in the mortuary at the same hospital pending postmortem.

Police have opened up a case of murder against the suspect while Ochol is being hunted for interrogation.

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