Archbishop Lwanga spy threats are exaggerated

Kampala Archbishop Cyprian Lwanga has made headlines since the Easter weekend. His unsubstantiated allegations that some anonymous caller told him that government had deployed spies in the Church to spy on him have since generated uncalled for nervousness.
While delivering Easter sermons in Rubaga Cathedral, Archbishop Lwanga castigated President Museveni to stop listening and receiving rumours from his intelligence organs about him. The implication of Lwanga’s outburst is that government now thinks of him as an enemy of the State simply because he at times speaks out his strong views against government on issues of governance and policy.
Lwanga castigating the President on an issue that he got through an anonymous caller is too panicky to needless levels. To have said the President believes all rumours taken to him was blackmail to say the least.
Archbishop Lwanga is a senior citizen and I believe with a fair knowledge of how intelligence bodies in this country work. There are standard procedures of collecting, analysing and managing intelligence materials. For any kind of information to reach the President it must be subjected to vigorous scrutiny and analysis.
Uganda is full of con men/woman and other wrong elements that thrive on taking advantage of their unsuspecting victims. Nobody is saying that Archbishop Lwanga should have ignored the information given to him. However, he should have engaged the relevant people, including the President, since he has quick access to them, before alarming the public on unsubstantiated allegations.
It was also wrong for Lwanga to publically indict his President and the security organs that have professionally secured Ugandans over this period of time. If Lwanga thinks police, ISO, CMI are such incompetent and useless organs that feed the President on wrong information, I wonder, therefore, which institutions the President should use to guarantee Lwanga’s total security, including identifying the anonymous source if he or she was acting in good faith.
In 1992, Emmanuel Cardinal Wamala was attacked by a terrorist who took him hostage for hours until he was rescued by government security services. The good Cardinal did not run to the pulpit to cry foul and castigate government and the President for not doing enough to protect him.
Wrong elements exist within us as society. Indeed, attempts have been directed to those that are holding big positions in society. The crook that attempted to attack Bishop Kityo Luwalira of Namirembe Cathedral on Easter Sunday is such of the kind. Thank God he was arrested and he will answer why he attempted such criminal activity on the man of God.
So Archbishop Lwanga should know that criminals might target him but the best way to counter their evil agenda is to work with government security organs to neutralise them.
In the subsequent interviews, Archbishop Lwanga seem to insinuate that his life is in danger simply because he and some few other church leaders have held strong views against the sitting government. That is not true. For the record, there are so many church leaders that have expressed strong opinions on the current government but have never been harassed in anyway.
The Archbishop of Gulu, His Grace John Baptist Odama, has for many years been outspoken on some government positions but he has lived peacefully doing his pastoral duties. Retired bishops Zac Niringiye and Macleods Ochola have voiced strong opinions against government and have lived their lives unbothered. Government has listened to their views and indeed acted on those that are tenable but has disagreed with them on those that might not be acceptable.
Therefore, the outburst in the media that Archbishop Lwanga chose to use only generates unnecessary anxiety and wild speculations that benefits nobody. On the contrary, His Grace Lwanga should enhance confidence building mechanisms with our security organs because no one else will guarantee his security.
Otherwise, Lwanga’s continued life threatening allegations before the media and name-calling of our security organisations will be misconstrued to total blackmail of government and his President who ironically was appealing to for help.
Finally, President Museveni has never been threatened or even showed displeasure to people with different opinions on matters of governance. Engagement and listening are his known traits. In fact, those with ungrounded ideas that are opposed to him dodge interfacing with him because they very much know that he will win them over to his side.

The writer works with the Uganda Media Centre
[email protected]