Tuesday March 17 marks 10 years since the infamous Kanungu massacre, a day that will remain etched into Uganda’s history books for wrong and sad reasons.

On this day, the country woke up to the horrific news that more than 300 people had burnt to death in a church in Kanungu, southwestern Uganda.

Members of the Movement for the Restoration of the Ten Commandments, a religious cult had been promised heaven come 2000. As the year approached, they were asked to sell all their property and belongings and give the proceeds to the cult leaders.

The cult was led by Joseph Kibwetere, Credonia Mwerinde, Angelina Mugisha, Fr Joseph Kasapurari and Fr Dominic Kataribabo.

As the days of 2000 passed one by one and the believers did not depart for heaven, they were promised that the Lord would soon come and take them with him.

Some believers started asking questions. The leaders decided to lock their flock in their prayer palace and set it on fire. It was only later that the world got to know that worse things had happened before the fire.

This compels me to question why government is taking too long with inquiries about the Sserulanda Spiritual Foundation, a group seeking to establish “a trade free zone” in the southern part of Uganda.

A lot has been written on this spiritual foundation whose activities of preserving the bodies of the dead have defied culture, public health, religion and even logic.

A number of warning bells have been raised by leaders and the Government seems to be “taking its time” setting commissions of enquiries which do not yield much while cult activity is going on.

There is no need to wait for the report of the commission considering that many leaders have spoken against the acts of this group.

Buganda Kingdom, for example, turned down the foundation’s application for five square miles of land. The Rakai Community Development Officer recently warned the public of the foundation’s activities. A senior commissioner of the Police recommended 15 years ago that the cult be deregistered.

I begin to doubt if the recommendations of the commission of inquiry into this cult will be implemented. Why? Because what we read from the media that this cult has some members of State House like a one presidential adviser may be true.

As individuals and societies, we do not have a strong understanding of the phenomenon of cults, nor of the dangers cults pose.

While recent cult tragedies have received a great deal of media coverage, many facts regarding cults are rarely divulged to the general public thus, preventative action is rarely undertaken by appropriate establishments, such as our homes, cultural institutions, and governments.

Lack of understanding or action persists despite highly active cult activities globally over the last few years especially since the start of the new millennium which sparked more catastrophes.

Despite the human and societal damage caused by cults, few organisations exist to help prevent or lessen the damage.

Until very recently, governments worldwide have not created systematic programmes to respond to the problem. The work has been done by non-profit organisations and by people working on individual basis, studying the cult phenomenon, counselling cult members and ex-members.

In addition prosecuting those guilty of cult-related crimes and abuses, and educating others on the dangers of cults. The cult problem is growing quickly and is expected to accelerate as the millennium approaches.

It is estimated that 25% of the millions of cult members worldwide will suffer enduring, irreversible harm that will affect their ability to function adequately in emotional, social, family, and occupational domains.

For every person who becomes a cult member, many more are impacted; parents, children, other family, and friends suffer personal and often economic loss.

Entire societies, numbed by coercive psychological influence, are more likely to allow large-scale tragedies.

Perhaps the most devastating example is the Holocaust. Cult operate by eliminating free will. Without free will, all other basic human freedoms, such as freedom of expression, freedom of speech, freedom of religion, become utterly meaningless.

Eventually if left unchecked, mind control would destroy all basic human freedoms and ruin social democracy. Fortunately, for all its destructiveness and mind control can be diffused rather easily.

Education is vital in helping cult members leave the destructive organisations they feel tied to and the Government must champion this.