Muslim father in Uganda burns daughter for becoming Christian

A 24-year-old woman has been recovering in a Ugandan hospital after her Muslim father allegedly burned her for converting to Christianity.

Rahema Kyomuhendo will spend at least a month at Mbale Regional Referral Hospital amid claims her father Sheikh Hussein Byaruhanga Husain burnt her on May 4.

Miss Kyomuhendo was left with horrific burns on her legs, stomach, ribs, neck and a portion of her lower back, according to religious watchdog the Morning Star News.

A source told the news website the woman’s father used fuel from a jerrycan to burn his daughter.

The alleged attack came after Miss Kyomuhendo converted from Islam to Christianity. Her father is a Sheikh – a spiritual teacher – and disapproved.

According to the report, Miss Kyomuhendo had been listening to Christian radio while staying at her aunt’s house in Nawuyo Village, Mbale District.

At 10pm she called her father’s friend, a Roman Catholic, and became ‘convicted’.

She told the website from her hospital bed: ‘She explained to me about Christ and the way of salvation, and I got convicted and accepted Jesus as my Lord and Savior.

But on the 11th day of the Islamic holiday Ramadan Husain told his sister he was going to kill his daughter because she had converted, according to reports.

It was reported she had to protect her niece and rushed her to hospital with the help of a neighbor following the attack.

Uganda is a religiously diverse nation but Christianity is the most common faith.

More than 84 per cent of the population is Christian, while just 14 per cent are Muslim, according to a 2014 census.