Was this fair?
Finer details have emerged regarding the brutal killing of a 43-year-old woman by her 53-year-old jilted husband on Monday September 13 in Lira City, Uganda.
The family of Denis Alal, the offender, has now been ordered to pay eight cows as compensation to the wife’s household.
This will be done after two months when the tempers have cooled down, Ugandan media is reporting. The two-month period expires late November.
The resolution was reached during a reconciliation meeting between the Arak Ongoda clan leaders where Christine Akello was a member and Okii Bura clan, the husband’s clan.
Mr Patrick Abal, the Arak Ongoda clan chief, confirmed the development.
According to tradition, eight cows would be enough for such compensation.
Mr Abal said the two clans also agreed that the couple’s orphaned five children take care of their parent’s property.
Mr Ambrose Omara, the woman’s maternal uncle, told a Ugandan local daily that following their daughter’s murder, he also filed a murder case at Lira Central Police Station.
He said the family resolved that the couple be buried at their respective ancestral homes…
“We cannot accept the body of our daughter to be buried next to the person who gruesomely killed her. So, we shall bury her body at home on Friday,” Mr Omara said.
Residents of Lira City were left in shock when Alal trailed the mother of his five children – who was travelling on a motorcycle – and severed her head from the body in broad daylight on Monday September 13. Her killer was also lynched by some members of the community.