A Ugandan court has sentenced a man to death of four children in a nursery Children’s Rights Issues

Mr Christopher Okello Onyum was sentenced for stabbing four children between the ages of one and three.

A Ugandan court has sentenced a man to death for killing four girls at a girls’ school in Kampala earlier this month.

Christopher Okello Onyum was found guilty of stabbing the children – aged between one and three – during the incident. April 2.

He pretended to be a parent to enter the nursery school, then closed the gate and carried out the attack within seven minutes.

A mob of angry parents tried to kill him before a security guard could arrest him, police said.

The court heard that Onyum searched for “schools near me” and “ISIS beheadings” on his mobile phone and laptop before the killings, which the judge said showed good planning.

The court rejected claims that he was suffering from mental illness at the time, while the judge said the “correct and accurate method” of the killings showed premeditation, adding that the children were killed “like animals”.

Onyum did not apologize to the parents, which the judge said showed he had no remorse.

A nursery worker told the court he found one of the children “covered in blood” and said Onyum tried to hit him when he confronted him.

“He got up and took a knife in his hand, and he ran so fast that he immediately grabbed another child.

“I picked up the children’s bicycle and threw it at him.

“When I dropped the bike, he left the child and started chasing me. I ran away but then I fell. When I woke up, I realized that he had cut the second child,” he said.

Capital punishment is legal in Uganda but it is rare, and the last execution took place 20 years ago.