A 58-year-old Israeli national has been arrested in Uganda after confessing to the murder of his wife when he discovered her alleged infidelity as a DNA test showed he is not the father of their 6-month-old daughter.
Police in Mpigi District arrested Raed Wated on Sunday, July 16, 2023, on suspicion of murdering his wife, Monica Nabukenya, 26.
He reportedly led investigators to a septic pit where his wife’s decomposing body was found after relatives alerted police about her disappearance.
Police had to break open metal bars that had been wielded over the opening of the pit.
Ugandan media cited police and officials in the Kalagala Village where Wated lived as saying the couple had a falling out over his suspicions that Nabukenya had been unfaithful.
This prompted him to take their daughter for a Deoxyribonucleic Acid (DNA) test.
“Wated decided to take the child for a DNA test and it so happened that the results turned negative,” a police statement reads in part.
The DNA test revealed that Wated was not the biological father of the child. The couple also have a 5 year old child.
When he returned home and after some confrontations, he decided to kill his wife and dump her body in a septic tank in their compound and partially covered the corpse with soil.
”In the process of interrogation, detectives at Kayabwe Police Station asked the suspect to take them to his home. On their arrival, they were hit by a stench of a decomposed body. They searched and found it in a septic tank. After questioning, He admitted killing his wife because of the negative DNA test results,” the police statement read.
Confirming the incident on Wednesday, July 19, Dauda Hirigi Were, the Katonga Regional Police commander, said the suspect reconstructed the murder for investigators.
“He confessed that he killed the wife because what she did — to sire a child with another man — is an abomination in their culture,” he said.
Nabukenya, who operated a village supermarket, had moved out of their shared home because of their quarrel but returned for a visit last Thursday with the girl, reportedly at the request of Wated, who had told her he wanted to reconcile with her.
Her family became concerned when they did not hear from Nabukenya for three days. Though Wated reportedly told them that she had left for Kampala to buy supplies, they contacted police, who arrived at the compound where he lives.
Nabukenya’s sister Royce Nayiga was with police when they entered the compound and “a foul smell welcomed us,” she told the outlet.
“It is at this point that the man revealed to detectives that he had actually killed my sister after a DNA test proved that he is not the biological father of the baby girl,” Nayiga said.
“We thought they would resolve their issues as a wife and husband but we were shocked to receive information that he had killed her,” she said.
Richard Ddumba, the chairperson of Kalagala Village, Kayabwe Town Council, said Wated had spoken to him four months ago about wanting a divorce.
“What I know is, the couple had only one baby. When the man received rumours that the baby belonged to another man, he took the child for a DNA test, which proved that he is not the real father,” he said, according to the Monitor report.
Stephen Mwogezi, the village defense secretary, said Wated became a resident of Uganda a decade ago after buying a plot of land where he built a house.
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