Three Years On And Kanungu Massacre Is Still Not Solved
Mar 16, 2003
Today is three years since Uganda woke up to the devastating shock of the Kanungu massacre.
By Gerald Businge
Today is three years since Uganda woke up to the devastating shock of the Kanungu massacre. Over 500 members of the Movement for the Restoration of the Ten Commandments of God burnt to death in their worship hall at Nyabugoto, Kanungu, South Western Uganda.
Shortly after the kanungu massacre, six bodies were discovered in a pit where the leaders were staying. One fifty three bodies were found under the cult’s building at Buhinga, Rutoma Rukungiri on March 25, 155 bodies were found in Rugazi, Bunyaruguru-Busenyi on March 27 buried in Fr. Kataribabo’s house, 81 were found in found in Rushojwa on March 30, while 55 bodies were unearthed from a mass grave at Buziga in Kampala on April 27, bringing the number of dead followers to approximately 1,000.
According to Pathologists’ reports many of the victims were clubbed, strangled or hacked to death. It is believed some were poisoned. There is a possibility that other victims were not found.
Authorities condemned the cult and described it as a “well calculated plan†by the cult leaders to rob people of their possessions and later commit them to death with promise that they were going to heaven in ‘the year of our lord 2000.’
Three years later, all the condemnations and warrants of arrest issued for the Kanungu cult leaders Joseph Kibwetere, Credonia Mwerinde, Fr. Dominic Kataribabo and the sh2m reward have not yielded much.
Ugandans are asking: Where are the perpetrators of this crime? Is it true they are alive? Have they or will they ever be brought to book? What was the actual number of victims? What measures are in place to ensure that such an incident doesn’t happen again? Does our government have the capacity to monitor cults? How can the public know that a group of people have Kanungu-like intentions? Is it true that most of the dead were not Ugandans? Will somebody ever give us the answers as to why this happened? How did such a cult manage to get registered as an Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO) and be existence for over 15 years without authorities noticing their cult-like tendencies?
The government had promised to set up a judicial commission of inquiry into the Kanungu massacre, but this did not materialise, apparently due “to lack of moneyâ€.
“Although we appointed the commission, government couldn’t raise the money,†says Sarah Kiyingi, internal affairs state minister.
Does government feel any kind of guilt that the Kanungu incident happened, yet nobody has been held responsible?
“We don’t feel guilty. It is unfortunate that Kanungu happened. Together with the local communities, the civil society, we were all deceived by these people who came like wolves dressed in sheep’s skin. Government did the best it could under the circumstances. We were taken for a ride just like everybody else,†Kiyingi says.
If these cult leaders ‘beat’ the authorities before in ‘successfully’ carrying out such an inhuman act, and they seem to have beaten the authorities even after the incident (as no one has been brought to book), how sure are we that such an incident will not recur?
“The people could see that they (cult) were being odd but they were given the benefit of the doubt,†said Athanasius Rutaro, then area district chairman.
Some people have allayed fears that most of the dead cult members were from neighbouring Rwanda and Democratic Republic of Congo, while others argue that it does not matter where the victims came from. Police confirmed that many of the dead were claimed by relatives from different parts of Uganda.
During days preceding the Kanungu inferno, Kataribaabo was seen in Rwanda in 2000, at the camp of a different cult, and then in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi.
Mwerinde, who once ran a bar, was seen in a village in southwestern Uganda. No one saw Kibwetere, and many believe he could have died before the fire.
“Investigations have been carried out. We know Credonia Mwerinde and Fr. Kataribabo are alive, but we don’t know where they are. They were seen in Kinkinzi town after the incident. We interviewed the people who saw them at the hotel where they slept. They even told us the vehicle they used. We went up to DRCongo tracking them, and we will continue looking for them,†says Police spokesman, Asuman Mugenyi.
Nathan Byamukama of the Uganda Human rights Commission and Dr. Gerard Banura of Makerere University’s Department of Religious Studies who participated in separate studies of the Kanungu incident call for more vigilance on the part of government, which has a duty to protect citizens from such incidents. They also beckoned civil society organisations to be vilgilant so that we avoid incidences like the Kanungu massacre.
“We have to desist from the comfort of always doing post-mortems after things have happened. Government has to find out whether all these new religious organisations are operating legally and are beneficial to the communities,†Dr. Banura says.
Kiyingi says government is on the look out: “We have presented to Parliament a proposal to amend the NGO law and the main objective is to increase the capacity and mandate of the NGO Board/ and empower the local communities to be represented on the Board,†Kiyingi explains.
Some human rights activists are up in arms saying while the NGO bill has better regulatory provisions, it gives the Board too much power that it may violate the rights and activities of NGOs that do not tow the government line.
“We need an enabling law to ensure that such incidents like Kanungu do not happen again. But we need to balance the need for improved monitoring of NGOs with respecting their rights and freedoms to operate,†says Dr. Sylvia Tamale of Makerere.
An NGO Board is supposed to monitor activities of NGOs. “We want improved monitoring to check whether NGOs are doing what they promised or are engaging in other activities. I don’t agree with those excuses against having ISO operatives on board. They have always been there. In any case there are mechanisms for appeal with the NGOs and the law,†Kiyingi argues.
In their periodical report: The Kanungu massacre: The Movement for the Restoration of the Ten Commandments of God Indicted, The Uganda Human Rights Commission (UHRC) says the cult violated all human rights especially the freedom to speak; freedom from torture, cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment; a right to private property; right to health; right to marriage and rights of children and others.
This is despite the fact that Goretti Mitima petitioned UHRC in 1998 over the cult. Ends
Today is three years since Uganda woke up to the devastating shock of the Kanungu massacre. Over 500 members of the Movement for the Restoration of the Ten Commandments of God burnt to death in their worship hall at Nyabugoto, Kanungu, South Western Uganda.
Shortly after the kanungu massacre, six bodies were discovered in a pit where the leaders were staying. One fifty three bodies were found under the cult’s building at Buhinga, Rutoma Rukungiri on March 25, 155 bodies were found in Rugazi, Bunyaruguru-Busenyi on March 27 buried in Fr. Kataribabo’s house, 81 were found in found in Rushojwa on March 30, while 55 bodies were unearthed from a mass grave at Buziga in Kampala on April 27, bringing the number of dead followers to approximately 1,000.
According to Pathologists’ reports many of the victims were clubbed, strangled or hacked to death. It is believed some were poisoned. There is a possibility that other victims were not found.
Authorities condemned the cult and described it as a “well calculated plan†by the cult leaders to rob people of their possessions and later commit them to death with promise that they were going to heaven in ‘the year of our lord 2000.’
Three years later, all the condemnations and warrants of arrest issued for the Kanungu cult leaders Joseph Kibwetere, Credonia Mwerinde, Fr. Dominic Kataribabo and the sh2m reward have not yielded much.
Ugandans are asking: Where are the perpetrators of this crime? Is it true they are alive? Have they or will they ever be brought to book? What was the actual number of victims? What measures are in place to ensure that such an incident doesn’t happen again? Does our government have the capacity to monitor cults? How can the public know that a group of people have Kanungu-like intentions? Is it true that most of the dead were not Ugandans? Will somebody ever give us the answers as to why this happened? How did such a cult manage to get registered as an Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO) and be existence for over 15 years without authorities noticing their cult-like tendencies?
The government had promised to set up a judicial commission of inquiry into the Kanungu massacre, but this did not materialise, apparently due “to lack of moneyâ€.
“Although we appointed the commission, government couldn’t raise the money,†says Sarah Kiyingi, internal affairs state minister.
Does government feel any kind of guilt that the Kanungu incident happened, yet nobody has been held responsible?
“We don’t feel guilty. It is unfortunate that Kanungu happened. Together with the local communities, the civil society, we were all deceived by these people who came like wolves dressed in sheep’s skin. Government did the best it could under the circumstances. We were taken for a ride just like everybody else,†Kiyingi says.
If these cult leaders ‘beat’ the authorities before in ‘successfully’ carrying out such an inhuman act, and they seem to have beaten the authorities even after the incident (as no one has been brought to book), how sure are we that such an incident will not recur?
“The people could see that they (cult) were being odd but they were given the benefit of the doubt,†said Athanasius Rutaro, then area district chairman.
Some people have allayed fears that most of the dead cult members were from neighbouring Rwanda and Democratic Republic of Congo, while others argue that it does not matter where the victims came from. Police confirmed that many of the dead were claimed by relatives from different parts of Uganda.
During days preceding the Kanungu inferno, Kataribaabo was seen in Rwanda in 2000, at the camp of a different cult, and then in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi.
Mwerinde, who once ran a bar, was seen in a village in southwestern Uganda. No one saw Kibwetere, and many believe he could have died before the fire.
“Investigations have been carried out. We know Credonia Mwerinde and Fr. Kataribabo are alive, but we don’t know where they are. They were seen in Kinkinzi town after the incident. We interviewed the people who saw them at the hotel where they slept. They even told us the vehicle they used. We went up to DRCongo tracking them, and we will continue looking for them,†says Police spokesman, Asuman Mugenyi.
Nathan Byamukama of the Uganda Human rights Commission and Dr. Gerard Banura of Makerere University’s Department of Religious Studies who participated in separate studies of the Kanungu incident call for more vigilance on the part of government, which has a duty to protect citizens from such incidents. They also beckoned civil society organisations to be vilgilant so that we avoid incidences like the Kanungu massacre.
“We have to desist from the comfort of always doing post-mortems after things have happened. Government has to find out whether all these new religious organisations are operating legally and are beneficial to the communities,†Dr. Banura says.
Kiyingi says government is on the look out: “We have presented to Parliament a proposal to amend the NGO law and the main objective is to increase the capacity and mandate of the NGO Board/ and empower the local communities to be represented on the Board,†Kiyingi explains.
Some human rights activists are up in arms saying while the NGO bill has better regulatory provisions, it gives the Board too much power that it may violate the rights and activities of NGOs that do not tow the government line.
“We need an enabling law to ensure that such incidents like Kanungu do not happen again. But we need to balance the need for improved monitoring of NGOs with respecting their rights and freedoms to operate,†says Dr. Sylvia Tamale of Makerere.
An NGO Board is supposed to monitor activities of NGOs. “We want improved monitoring to check whether NGOs are doing what they promised or are engaging in other activities. I don’t agree with those excuses against having ISO operatives on board. They have always been there. In any case there are mechanisms for appeal with the NGOs and the law,†Kiyingi argues.
In their periodical report: The Kanungu massacre: The Movement for the Restoration of the Ten Commandments of God Indicted, The Uganda Human Rights Commission (UHRC) says the cult violated all human rights especially the freedom to speak; freedom from torture, cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment; a right to private property; right to health; right to marriage and rights of children and others.
This is despite the fact that Goretti Mitima petitioned UHRC in 1998 over the cult. Ends