Credonia Mwerinde Relative Surfaces

ALL relatives of Credonia Mwerinde, the woman believed to have been behind mass Kanungu cult killings, are dead, reports Matthias Mugisha. Mary Kyomugisha, Mwerinde's niece who visited The New vision head offices yesterday, said her father, John Begira, brother to Credonia Mwerinde and heir to the family property, had died before the March 17, 2000 church inferno in Kanungu. She said until yesterday she had been in hiding because she did not want to be associated with the family which killed hundreds of people. "I have been in hiding since 1995 when I ran away from my aunt Credonia, who wanted to kill me," she said. On March 17, 2000, hundreds of followers of the Church of the Restoration of the Ten Commandments cult headed by Joseph Kibwetere, an ex-Catholic priest Dominic Kataribaabo, and former barmaid, Mwerinde, died in the church inferno. After several days, hundreds of more bodies were discovered in mass graves in the various cult branches in central and western Uganda. Kyomugisha said she was locked in a room in Kataribaabo's house in Bunyaruguru for a week without water and food. A good Samaritan broke the window of the room to enable her flee to Kampala where she has been living. Kyomugisha said all her family members had perished in the fire or had died. Ends