The Mulago Hospital massacre happened on July 28, 1950. A 55-year-old Lazaro Obwara ran down the ward and stabbed a woman and eleven children with a knife, all of whom died After he has visited his dying son at Mulago hospital
One of Uganda's deadliest mass stabbings, in which twelve people died after a man attacked sleeping children in a hospital pediatric ward.
Key Facts
- Date of attack
- 28 July 1950
- Total fatalities
- 12 (8 children + 1 mother at scene, 3 later)
- Injured (non-fatal initially)
- 2 children, both died within a day
- Perpetrator
- Lazaro Obwara, age 55
- Murder charges filed
- 10 counts, filed 29 July 1950
- Location of attack
- Mulago Government African Hospital, pediatric ward
By the Numbers
Location
Cause → Event → Consequence
Lazaro Obwara, a 55-year-old man, was visiting his terminally ill son in the pediatric ward of Mulago Government African Hospital in Kampala in the early morning hours of 28 July 1950. His motive for the subsequent attack has never been established.
Armed with a knife, Obwara ran down one side of the pediatric ward stabbing children who were asleep in their beds. Medical staff and visiting mothers managed to evacuate most children. Eight children and one mother died at the scene; a further child died that same day, and two more injured children died the following day, bringing the total death toll to twelve.
Obwara was arrested at the scene. On 29 July 1950, before the deaths of the two last victims, he was brought before a magistrates' court and charged with ten counts of murder, marking one of the most lethal criminal attacks recorded in Uganda during the colonial period.