Namugongo, Uganda
Top Catholic and Anglican bishops in Uganda have condemned the wave of violent crimes including kidnaps, torture and murders that have gripped the country.
Speaking during the celebrations to mark Uganda Martyrs’ Day on 3rd June at the Uganda Martyrs Shrine in Namugongo, Wakiso District, the bishops appealed to whoever is perpetrating the violent crimes in the country to change heart.
Catholic Church clergy arrive for Mass at the Catholic Shrine in Namugongo on Martyrs’ Day, 3rd June. PICTURE: John Semakula)
“Any attack on a human being is a direct attack on God,” said Catholic Bishop Paul Ssemogerere, the apostolic administrator of Kampala Archdiocese. He added that “many people have been killed and the perpetrators are never found”.
Ssemogerere called upon the police to thoroughly investigate the violent crimes and ensuring suspects are arrested and prosecuted to reduce the crime rate.
The bishop’s remarks came at the time when unknown assailants have waged war against high profile Ugandans. On 1st June, assailants waylaid Uganda’s former army commander General Katumba Wamala in Bukoto, Kampala, and fired a volley of bullets at his car, killing his daughter Brenda Nantongo and a driver, Haruna Kayondo. The general narrowly escaped the attempt on his life with serious injuries on both arms.
Several other top government officials including high-ranking army and police officers and a member of parliament have also been killed in similar attacks in recent years which have usually involved armed assailants on motorcycles spraying their vehicles with bullets. The victims include Assistant Inspector General of Police, Andrew Felix Kaweesi, who was gunned down in 2017 and Arua Municipality legislator, Ibrahim Abiriga killed in 2018.
The most recent violence has come in the wake of the 14th January presidential elections and has involved a wave of kidnappings, incidents of torture and the murder of Opposition party supporters.
The hotly contested presidential election was won by the incumbent, President Yoweri Museveni, of the National Resistance Movement, who garnered 59 per cent of the vote. His closest challenger Robert Kyagulanyi, alias Bobi Wine, of the National Unity Platform (NUP), received 35 per cent. Kyagulanyi has accused state security agencies of kidnapping, torturing and murdering his supporters.
On Thursday, Ssemogerere also asked Christians to pray in regard to the high crime rate in the country and the spread of COVID-19.
Meanwhile, the Rt Rev Anthony Zziwa, chairperson of the Uganda Episcopal Conference, appealed to the Catholics to pray and work for peace in the country. He noted the crime rate had reached an alarming level.
“We can’t come here to pray for peace and later turn around to promote crime,” Zziwa said, comparing those who killed the Uganda Martyrs in the 1880s to today’s murderers.
He called upon government to release all political prisoners arrested and detained during the 2021 campaign period. “We can’t talk of peace when people are still held in illegal detentions.”
The Archbishop of the Anglican Church, the Most Rev Stephen Kaziimba Mugalu, also condemned the rampant murders and asked parliament to enact tougher laws to deter crime.
This year’s Uganda Martyrs Day celebrations were conducted virtually because of COVID-19. Catholic Bishop Serverus Jjumba, of Masaka Diocese in central Uganda, led the day’s Mass, while Bishop Kityo Luwalira, of Namirembe Diocese in Kampala, was the main celebrant for Anglicans.
The Uganda Martyrs are a group of 23 Anglican and 22 Catholic converts to Christianity from the Buganda Kingdom in central Uganda who were executed for their faith between 31st January, 1885, and 27th January, 1887. The converts were killed on the orders of Kabaka Mwanga II, of the Buganda Kingdom, who feared the growing influence of Christianity in his kingdom.
The executioners were ordered to burn the converts alive and many were thrown in a blazing fire which was located on the site of what is now the Uganda Martyrs Shrine in Namugongo. Many of the converts refused to denounce Jesus Christ in exchange for their freedom and sang songs praising Him as they were being thrown into the fire.
The Ugandan Martyrs are widely considered as “the seed of the church” in the East African region. They were canonised and elevated to sainthood by Pope Paul VI on 18th October, 1964.
Millions of Christians from different parts of the world usually converge at Namugongo on 3rd June to commemorate the Uganda Martyrs Day. In 2020, the celebrations were halted because of COVID-19 and this year the venue in Namugongo was restricted to only 200 pilgrims, mainly the clergy and other influential Christians and political leaders. The event was broadcast on TV.
In Uganda, the Day is a public holiday. This year’s theme for the Catholic Church was “let’s not lose heart”.
