The head of the House of Prayer Ministries International, Pastor Aloysius Bugingo (centre), is a known
passionate supporter of President Museveni and First Son, Gen Muhoozi Kainerugaba. PHOTO/ NOELINE
NABUKENYA
Democratisation is the structural government transition from an authoritarian government to a more democratic political regime, including substantive political changes moving in a democratic direction.
Democratisation, however, is not just political democratisation. It includes other dimensions, namely: social, economic, cultural, environmental, ecological, academic, intellectual, educational, agricultural, scientific and spiritual democratisation.
De-democratisation is the reverse of democratisation. A government in power, which may have been committed to democratisation, begins to manifest as authoritarian and to undertake political changes that counteract democracy. These may include proscribing political parties and making society less pluralistic in favour of monolithism.
In Uganda, de-democratisation is proceeding simultaneously with inequality-building and popularisation of the lie that a politico-military order can allow for democratisation politically through regular elections. Yet the elections really belong to the one who organises them – not to lose them but to win them at all costs.
Given these socio-political conditions, Uganda under Movement rule and authoritarian populism is experiencing democratic failure, democratic subversion, democratic resistance and democratic polarisation by the powers that be, and hence a crisis of democracy.
Promoting and protecting democracy in Uganda in times of authoritarian populism and de-democratisation is thus becoming a nightmare for the alternative political forces struggling to re-democratise the country.
The democratic challenge is real. It demands rethinking governance altogether towards re-democratisation in Uganda before it is too late. The rethinking and re-democratisation must consider the role of pro-regime pastors and clergy in the de-democratisation processes, not only in the spiritual but also, in the other dimensions of democracy.
In this article, I propose that there are pastors and clergy who are integral to the process of de-democratisation in Uganda and who are, therefore, an antithesis of democracy and democratisation.
They use their privileged positions as “servants of God” and the pulpit to sway their followers towards an increasingly authoritarian government central to which are the vices of presidentialism and fear.
Presidentialism facilitates the Executive’s preying on and weakening of Parliament, Judiciary and all other institutions of State, over which it has enormous influence and power by virtue of the Constitution.
Fear is a form of social control par excellence. Punitive power exploits people’s fear of social exclusion and the possibility of being labelled as a criminal to subject them to its control. In order to keep these threats alive, the punitive system enshrines penalties that have evolved and whose main paradigm today is the prison.
In order to justify punishment and the control it entails, the punitive system uses fear of crime, of the criminal, of what is different, to incite permanent social alarm. In brief, fear as a core part of domination is an essential element of the punitive system.
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Fear in Uganda is built in iron fist policies and laws of the State. For example, when the government wanted to create fear among the alternative leaders and/or political organisations, it used Parliament to enact fear-packed laws, including the Constitution which invests all power and authority in the hands of one man and raises him above the law; Movement Act 1997, which more or less creates a one-party State and coerces everyone to be in the Movement and; Political Organisations Law 1997, which allows existence of political parties, controls their growth and development and denies them free political space to operate, organise and recruit new members.
Other laws include the Sectarian Law, which allows foreigners the leeway to do anything they want without fear of reprisals from the indigenous people and actually silences the latter even when in extreme pain; and Anti-Terrorism Law 2002, which more or less decrees against political radicalism, demonstrations as political radicals and demonstrators can easily be baptised terrorists and thrown behind bars.
What is the role of pro-regime pastors and clergy in all this? Pro-regime pastors and clergy practice what is called religio-politics and are, therefore, religio-political in their spiritual work in favour of the powers that be.
I have in the past written about the religio-politics of Pastor Aloysius Bugingo (Oweyegha-Afunaduula, 2023) and the religio-politics of Nabbi Daudi Isinga (Oweyegha-Afunaduula, 2024) of the Universal Apostles Fellowship Church of Righteousness.
Both Bugingo and Isinga are influential pastors and outspoken supporters of the National Resistance Movement (NRM), which today seems to be resisting democracy and democratisation of Uganda in favour of hereditary politics.
Pro-regime theologians even advise their followers to choose President Museveni over and above other potential leaders of Uganda. They do not set themselves apart from the Movement.
Their churches are the preferred destinations for Movement leaders to seek God’s approval. Just like the pro-regime preachers in Egypt who frequently urge their audiences to be loyal to the State, the religio-political preachers of Uganda do the same and urge their spiritual followers to choose the Movement and President Museveni.
Paul A Djupe and Christopher P Gilbert (2008) wrote a beautiful article, ‘The Political Influence of Churches’, which was published on Researchgate. They investigated the political influence of the Church and how membership in organised religious bodies shapes the political life of members.
Djupe and Gilbert's goal in this inquiry was to re-centre scholarly attention on voluntary association as an essential element of civic and political life. They developed a theoretical framework that captures the multifaceted elements of Church life that affect individual political attitudes and actions.
Political information from clergy, small groups, and social networks flows plentifully in churches, but individuals process that information differently depending on their motivations related to their status in the church.
Articulating a more fully specified model of how associations expose individuals to political information and norms will help us understand the political opinions and behaviour of citizens and the contribution of that pattern to sustaining democracy (Paul A Djupe and Christopher P. Gilbert, 2008). Otherwise, democracy is in serious trouble not only in Uganda but in the whole world.
There is widespread belief among Ugandans that most Pentecostal churches in Uganda are pro-regime apologists and often urge their members to support the Movement and its chairman. Researchers need to investigate how President Museveni and the Movement are reciprocating or paying back for the political support the Pentecostal churches are mobilising for them.
However, if President Museveni and the Movement have strategised together to resist the proliferation and entrenchment of democracy and democratisation in Uganda, then the Pentecostal churches are, by extension, integral to the resistance of democracy and democratisation by the Movement Regime.
The writer, Prof Oweyegha-Afunaduula, is a retired senior lecturer from the Faculty of Science at Makerere University
