Police in Uganda are holding a 110-year-old man over accusations of stabbing his 109-year-old wife to death for denying him conjugal rights.

The Daily Monitor newspaper reports that Dominic Babiiha allegedly murdered Costansio Bakasisa with a billhook on Saturday at their matrimonial home in Kahunga, in the western district of Ntungamo.

The regional police spokesperson Samson Kasasira was quoted by the publication as saying that on Thursday night at around 8 pm, the deceased reportedly turned down her husband's request to join him in bed because she was feeling weak and had a cough.

“The two went to sleep in separate rooms with the deceased moving in with her two great-grandchildren," the police spokesperson said.

The suspect is said to have raised an alarm on Saturday morning, saying "he couldn't die alone", prompting one of the granddaughters to check if there was a problem.

"When she opened the door, the granddaughter saw the suspect armed with a billhook. The suspect ordered her out," Kasasira told the Monitor, adding, "The suspect then immediately started stabbing the deceased several times, forcing the other great-granddaughter to run out and seek help from neighbours."

Responding neighbours found Bakasisa dead, while Babiiha had locked himself in a room where he was found unconscious with a bottle of an agrochemical beside him.

Police said that the violence that led to the woman's death was triggered by the "denying her husband his conjugal rights," and that a probe into the matter was underway.

The couple lived in the same house but slept in separate rooms, police added.