Joint security force deployed at city church
Some of the UPDF soldiers who were deployed at the Church. Photo by Spephen Otage
A force of police and UPDF soldiers Thursday deployed at St. Luke's Church in Ntinda, a Kampala suburb, as women leaders and activists launched a national movement to pray for peace in the country.
Rev Diana Nkesiga, the retired vicar of All Saints Cathedral Nakasero ,who presided over the morning service, that was attended mainly by women activists, said as mothers of the nation, they cannot sit back and watch as the country “slides back into its dark history, following political events which unfolded fbefore and after Arua Municipality by-election two weeks ago.”
Such events, according to Rev Nkesiga, can plunge the country into anarchy, if Ugandans do not call for God’s intervention through prayers.
"We are not just women but mothers of the nation who have the responsibility to protect the dignity of every human being living in this nation. We have wept long enough," she said. “After weeping and waiting for long enough, they [mothers] are tired of standing by the roadside watching and doing nothing. They are rising up in the strength of the Lord to change the hearts of Ugandans and the way they think.”
She said: "We are coming to repent on behalf of the nation. With prayer, there is an awakening in God's people and it exposes our weaknesses because many of us are complacent."
Police officers monitor the situation from a distance. Photo by Stephen Otage
A cross section of women who attended the prayers. Photo by Stephen Otage
The prayers were organised by Akina Mama Wa Africa, a women rights organisation seeking justice for victims of violence during elections in Arua under the Women4Uganda Platform.
According to Dr Thelma Awori, Women4Ugandat is a platform using prayer to lay a foundation to end injustice and oppression in the country by mobilising women all over the country to gather every first Monday of the month, at 7:00am in their respective churches and pray for the nation.
"We can no longer sit silently when the poor are being evicted from their land, brutality on streets, kidnappings, rape of women and young girls, misuse of public funds, abuse of power, our children suffer the worst forms of wickedness," she said, adding that women are ashamed of their silence and complacence as such “evils” take escalate.
Security officers who were deployed watched from a distance until the prayers ended.
sotage@ ug.nationmedia.com
