Father Kibuuka’s suspension: The inside story

News about the suspension of Rev Fr Jacinto Kibuuka, the popular and stylist charismatic priest, has left many of his followers speechless with some vowing to continue attending his healing services despite being advised to keep away by the Kampala Archdiocese.
Fr Kibuuka was on Wednesday suspended by the Archdiocese tribunal for disobedience and ordered to stop his priestly duties, including celebrating mass and offering sacraments with immediate effect.

Commenting on this, one of Fr Kibuuka’s followers, Gertrude Nanziri, 65, a resident of Kireka, swore to continue attending the priest’s crusades, saying nothing under the sky would force her to denounce him.

“I find Fr Kibuuka’s style of praying and preaching more suitable for me than in the mainstream church. It’s because of him that I returned to my mother church having spent a number of years as a born again praying from Pentecostal churches,” Nanziri says.

To many Catholic Church observers, the suspension of Fr Kibuuka, ordained in 2008 by Archbishop of Kampala Cyprian Kizito Lwanga himself, comes as a surprise considering the special relations he enjoyed with his mentor.

Fr Kibuuka first rose to prominence three years ago by performing miracles at Rubaga Hospital Chapel and later forced to shift to a much bigger space at Rubaga Hospital Nursing School premises nearby.

The priest’s suspension was announced hardly a month after he bought a large chunk of land at Namugongo near the Anglican Martyrs shrine from where his healing services take place every Sundays.

Fr Kibuuka acquired the land with the help of his followers, whose numbers have grown tremendously. It was these followers that reportedly contributed the biggest amount of money that enabled the priest acquire the land seen as big enough to accommodate his ever increasing flock.

Previously, Fr Kibuuka conducted prayers at a place in Namugongo near the Martyrs Shrine which was offered to him by none other than Archbishop Lwanga. His suspension, therefore, has taken many by surprise.

For instance, while the letter suspending him partly accused the priest of disobedience by turning down a transfer to Ggoli Catholic Parish in Mpigi District about a year ago, Archbishop Lwanga went ahead to appoint him on the Uganda Martyrs Shrine Namugongo renovation fundraising committee prior to the Pope’s visit last November. Logically, it’s does not make sense that a disobedient person can be named on such an important committee.

Fr Kibuuka was said to have done a great job in mobilising his church members to contribute a reasonable amount to the fund, and later he was even thanked and recognised by the Archbishop.

According to a Catholic Church insider, one Muslim tycoon from the Middle East, for instance, parted with half a billion Shillings. Fr Kibuuka is said to have prayed and cured him of a complicated illness some time back. He even converted to Catholicism.

Doubting the Archbishop’s role
Meanwhile, there are those doubting the Archbishop’s role in Fr Kibuuka’s suspension, saying it was likely that the big man’s hands were tied and was simply forced to take the final decision by priests around him who have for along envied Fr Kibuuka rising popularity.

It should be recalled that Fr Kibuuka was always protected by the Archbishop who was happy seeing the priest contributing large sums of money to the Archdiocese’s coffers.

While still based at Rubaga Hospital Nursing School grounds, priests at Rubaga Cathedral Parish, a stone’s throw away, always complained and blamed Fr Kibuuka for the dwindling number of Sunday attendances.

A big number of worshipers were instead attracted to Fr Kibuuka’s services below the cathedral at the nursing school premises. At one time, a cathedral priest openly blamed the stalling of the parish hall, which was still under construction, to the dwindling Sunday collections compared to before Fr Kibuuka came around.

At the time, Fr Kibuuka demonstrated that he was not after the financial donations that were being offered to him by his followers, the reason he started inviting representatives of the Archbishop to oversee the collections which they always took at the end of the services. Strangely, during all this time Fr Kibuuka was residing at the Archbishop’s residence, and not within the parish.

The charismatic priest’s popularity was said to have been envied by some priests in the Archdiocese who were not amused seeing the young priest attracting more attention yet they had served in priesthood for decades without making any major impact.

Consequently, Fr Kibuuka made as many friends as enemies. Recently, some people allegedly connived to drag him in a case where he was said to have had an affair with a certain young Kampala lady. All this time, the Archbishop stood by him, calling such stories nothing but lies.

Interestingly, at the beginning of the inquiries into the case, with the help of CID officers, six priests, including Fr Kibuuka, were paraded at Rubaga and the lady in question was asked to single out “her lover”. To the shock of everyone, including the Archbishop, she pointed at a Rubaga Cathedral Parish priest.
On Easter Sunday, something happened which pointed to the pressure that the Archbishop was facing to get rid of his once right-hand priest: He read out a list of priests in the Archdiocese whom he said were the only ones allowed to pray and cast demons out of the sick. Fr Kibuuka’s name was missing.

The Archbishop then went ahead to say other priests were free to just pray for and heal the sick but were not allowed to cast out demons. Many were left confused and wondering what was the difference was.

When contacted for this interview, Archbishop Lwanga said he was out of town, but would prepare a press release. However, by press time the communication hadn’t yet been released.

Blamed
Meanwhile, there are those who blame Fr Kibuuka’s woes on his recent acquisition of land, saying this was considered sacrilegious in the Catholic Church. However, some critics say it is no longer a secret that some Catholic priests in Kampala Archdiocese own four-wheel drive vehicles, chunks of land, mansions and even beaches.

Some priests have made millions doing kyeyo where they go at least once a year, while others have refused to return home after the completion of their studies in the US and Europe. Surprisingly, none of them has been reprimanded.

Besides, the pieces of land on which some of the most popular prayer places in the Archdiocese sit were originally bought by individual priests. The Bulakango Mt Sion land was bought by Monsignor Expedito Magembe while the late Monsignor Lawrence Mbwega acquired the one at Kiwamirembe on Entebbe Road.

Thus, the one million dollar question remains, what crime did Fr Jacinto Kibuuka really commit?

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