Kampala, Uganda
The Ugandan Government has accused the Catholic Church of failing to play its core role of spreading the Gospel and instead meddling in electoral politics.
While addressing a press conference in Kampala last weekend, the Minister for Presidency, Esther Mbayo, told journalists that Catholic Archbishop Cyprian Kizito Lwanga, of Kampala Archdiocese, and Catholic priests had come out openly against the ruling party, the National Resistance Movement, in central Uganda, resulting in some significant losses for the party in the 14th January general elections.
Archbishop Cyprian Kizito Lwanga and Bobi Wine’s campaign team posing for a photo recently after a mass at Rubaga Cathedral in Kampala ahead of the general elections on 14th January, 2021. PICTURE: Via Rubaga Cathedral.
According to official results, President Yoweri Museveni, of the ruling NRM, won a sixth presidential term with 58.64 per cent of the vote while his nemesis, pop star-come-politician Robert Kyagulanyi, alias Bobi Wine, who heads the National Unity Platform, came second with 34.83 per cent.
But Wine’s NUP – which has rejected the results, citing massive electoral fraud such as ballot stuffing, electoral violence and change of results on the declaration forms – took all the strategic parliamentary seats in central Uganda, with all the 13 NRM ministers from the region being voted out including Vice-President Edward Kiwanuka Sekandi and the government chief whip Ruth Nankabirwa.
Minister Mbayo said at the press conference that in “central Uganda it was clear the church was telling people to vote for red coffee that has matured”.
“What does that mean?” the minister asked. Mature coffee berries are red in colour and red is the dominant colour in Bobi Wine’s party.
“Everybody should concentrate on what they are supposed to do,” Mbayo said. “If you are the church, concentrate on that, and if you are a politician, concentrate on that. If you want to join politics, put off the robes and come.”
On one of the Sundays towards the end of the presidential campaign, Bobi Wine prayed at Rubaga Cathedral where Archbishop Lwanga gave him a special blessing and a Bible.
Video clips of Catholic priests urging Ugandans to vote the NRM out of power also circulated on social media during the campaign. The priests accused the NRM government of mismanaging the country, resulting in high levels of poverty and corruption.
But Mbayo said the church has also failed the country and that it has no moral authority to criticise the government’s failures.
“Long ago, we used to have very few churches and few sinners but, today, the number of churches has grown and yet the number of sinners keeps growing,” she said. “Instead of bringing the lost sheep back in the Church, they are concentrating on politics.”
By press time, no leader of the Catholic Church had officially come out to respond to Mbayo’s accusations. But Archbishop Lwanga this week asked President Museveni to seek reconciliation with the people who challenged him in the previous elections for the good of the country.
“Forgive your opponents who have embarrassed you in the previous elections. We believe if a country is to be at peace, it is good to reconcile with one another and move on,” Lwanga said during a requiem mass for John Baptist Kaggwa, a Ugandan bishop emeritus.
About 39 per cent of the population in Uganda are Catholic, according to the 2014 census, while 32 per are Anglican and 11 per cent are Pentecostal. Museveni identifies as an Anglican and Wine as a Catholic.
While President Museveni has previously discouraged the clergy from meddling in politics, he has continuously appointed some members of the clergy in political positions, such as Fr Simon Lokodo, the current ethics minister.
This is not the first time cracks have emerged in the relationship between the church and the government in Uganda. In 1977, then President Idi Amin accused the Archbishop of the Anglican Church, Janani Luwum, of meddling in politics and ordered his arrest before he was shot dead.
