Sister-in-Law testifies against Sheikh Umar in Court over human trafficking and sexual abuse allegations.

The case of Sheikh Umar, widely known as “Omulombi w’edduwa”, has begun to be heard. His sister-in-law has testified about his sexual harassment of her daughter.

Sheikh Kassim Umar Muwonge Kamoga, known as Seeka Umar of Nansana, has had testimony given against him in a case of attempting to defile a 13-year-old girl (name withheld). He allegedly took the child from her parents and sexually harassed her in an abusive manner. He is appearing before Judge Alice Komuhangi Khaukha of the High Court’s International Crimes Division.

Led by State Prosecutor George Bigirwa, Cissy Naluwooza, 39, Seeka Umar’s sister-in-law and a resident of Kiboga, is the mother of the alleged victim. In a calm but visibly pained voice, she told the judge everything that happened.

Naluwooza told the judge that all she narrated was told to her by her daughter, since she was not present at the time she had gone to Kalangala to work after separating from her husband. She has two children with him, including the now 16-year-old alleged victim.

She said that at one point, when they lacked school fees, she and her husband Ibrahim Ssebijwenge decided to find someone to help with the child. That’s when Seeka Umar came forward, saying he could take care of her, and they handed her over to him in 2016 when she was six years old.

One day while she was in Kalangala, she got a phone call from her husband Ssebijwenge informing her that their daughter had been taken from Seeka Umar’s home.

She recounted that she rushed back and went to Nansana Police Station to report her daughter missing. At the police station, she was told not to worry because the girl had come in by herself and opened a case against Umar, saying he had tried to sexually assault her.

After seeing her daughter, the girl explained to her what happened: Seeka Umar, where she had been sent, had turned into a “Nnamunswa” who preys on children. She said he had been touching her inappropriately and asking her for a relationship.

When the girl realized what was happening, she confided in someone who advised her to go to the police for help. That’s how Seeka Umar Kamoga was arrested.

The mother said the child had been given to Umar willingly by both her and her husband Ssebijwenge. She told the judge she knows Seeka Umar’s home in Nansana Nsumbi well and had visited the child there before.

Naluwooza stated that her brother-in-law Seeka Umar had been educating the child from nursery through primary seven, until the incident happened in 2023.

Led by Zephania Zzimbe, Umar’s lawyers asked Naluwooza whether she had willingly given the child to Seeka. She said yes, for purposes of education, though she admitted she could not recall many of the specific dates when events occurred.