Barely 24 hours into 2024 and a damper had been put on the new year bliss.

Tensions have been swirling over unsettling current affairs that kicked off the year, starting with the attempt on the life of city pastor Aloysius Bugingo of House of Prayer Ministries. It was reported on Tuesday, January 2 that there was an attempted assassination of Bugingo in Namungoona while he was being driven to his home.

https://www.newvision.co.ug/category/news/i-am-alive-because-of-the-grace-of-god-buging-NV_178064

While the pastor survived the shooting with only one of the many bullets that were aimed at him injuring his back, his driver succumbed to the ordeal.

The incident revived tensions over security in light of Uganda’s history in recent years of assassinations that have targeted various public figures, with many questioning whether another string of attacks is about to take shape.

Before the gun powder on this incident had settled, news broke of another attempted assignation of former Kawempe South division Member of Parliament Mubarak Munyagwa when unknown persons attempted to break into his home at 3:00am on January 3.

https://www.newvision.co.ug/category/news/police-foil-attempted-robbery-at-munyagwas-re-NV_178031

Luckily, Munyagwa was not in the house that the assailants broke into and the Police reportedly responded promptly to the incident . However, the politician’s security guard sustained injuries inflicted on his head during the attack.

As the country was still grappling with news of this unfortunate incident, tragedy struck the Albertine region when Masindi district was hit with the demise of the acting district health officer on the night of January 7.

The body of Dr. Jino Abiriga who was also a surgeon at Masindi hospital was discovered in his neighbour’s compound with deep cuts to the neck and head.

https://www.newvision.co.ug/category/news/masindi-mourns-death-of-acting-dho-dr-abiriga-NV_178271

The Police are treating the fatal incident as a murder investigation with four members of the deceased doctor’s family including his widow, Cherotic Betty, are being held in custody over suspected involvement in the murder which has come to a shock to members of the community.

The world has also been unsettled over allegations coming out against renowned evangelist preacher and self-professed Nigerian prophet Temitope Balogun Joshua famously known by his alias TB Joshua.

TB Joshua, who founded Synagogue Church of All Nations, passed away in 2021. Now, various former members of his congregation have come out to claim that for years, he subjected them to physical and sexual assault.

The BBC released a damning documentary following an investigation it carried out on the controversial legacy of the preacher.

The documentary detailed the alleged atrocities of the evangelist leader, with many former members of the congregation, including his own daughter,  narrating horrific ordeals of the experiences that they had at the hand of TB Joshua.

They detailed ordeals of physical assault, fake miracles, sexual crimes, torture, financial corruption and coerced abortions of pregnancies that resulted from his sexual assault of female members of his congregation.

The allegations have come as a shock to the world as the famous pastor had a mass audience worldwide. For some, these allegations come as no surprise as there have been milder revelations over the years of TB Joshua’s alleged wrongdoings. However, this time around, the allegations cannot possibly be easily ignored.

The controversy surrounding the once respected pastor has raised eyebrows as to the authenticity of other spiritual leaders in the evangelist community. For Uganda, this hits too close to home as there have been links between the Synagogue Church of All Nations of TB Joshua and the Synagogue Church of All Nations in Uganda that is under the leadership of Prophet Samuel Kakande.

It might seem like such a gloom start to the year, but these recent daunting incidents might serve as a wake-up call to vigilance.  Perhaps the subtext of the recent happenings is that it is time that as a society, we stopped sweeping things under the rug under the delusion of having a brand-new slate every January first.  The current affairs happening might take a positive turn if society is willing to face the issues that are calling to be resolved before entering a new chapter in the new year.

The Government will need to step up and deliver efficiently on security if this chain of assassinations is to be successfully brought to a halt. The two attempted assignations on two different public figures in the country in a span of just a few hours, is all the indication if any was ever needed that the security threats on public figures that have berated Uganda in recent years are far from being over and if significant effort is not put towards tightening security measures around the country and delivering tangible results on the promises of better national security, we might be able to ride out the uncertain times.

The exposure of TB Joshua’s alleged controversial acts is a call to examine the blind trust that congregations put in charismatic leaders. The silver lining in this is that it will perhaps cause a revolution in the way that we view our spiritual and religious leaders; to start to view them as fallible human beings.