BBC investigates cult churches in Uganda
The former Kibwetere’s church premises at Nyabugoto in Kanungu District where hundreds were burnt to death. BBC Africa Eye has exposed how new pastors exploit their followers for profit and power in Uganda. PHOTO/FILE
What you need to know:
- In the BBC report, former aides in prominent local churches detailed how they participated in conjuring miracles to win the flock, turning some into victims of rogue pastors.
Twenty-two years since the death of 778 members of the cultic Movement for the Restoration of the Ten Commandments of God in Kanungu District, BBC Africa Eye has exposed how new pastors exploit their followers for profit and power in Uganda.
In a report by Mr Peter Macjob, a BBC investigative reporter, that is to air today on the UK public broadcaster, former aides in prominent local churches detailed how they participated in conjuring miracles to win the flock, turning some into victims of rogue pastors.
BBC Africa Eye interviewed one George William Asiimwe, a senior leader in the Faith of Unity for more than 20 years, who told them: “When I read the characteristics of a cult, I discovered that we actually belonged to a cult.”
Mr Asiimwe told BBC Africa Eye that things were made up; “things we used to concoct, but they did not harm anyone directly. We wanted to sustain our faith [and following]. That’s why we concocted them”.
BBC Africa Eye put these claims to Faith of Unity, but the church declined to comment.
Faith of Unity was led by Omukama Bisaka who, until he died last year, held himself out as a deity.
The Omukama Bisaka’s teachings reject the Bible, which they deride as a book the Europeans introduced to distort the minds of Africans.
The leaders and followers follow the teaching and writings of their former leader Bisaka, whom they consider their God.
Pastor Rodgers Atwebembeire, who researches new religious movements across East Africa, told the BBC Africa Eye in the report shared in advance exclusively with the Daily Monitor, that leaders of the movements are dictatorial.
Issue
“Their word is as authoritative as the Bible. When they speak, God has spoken. Their followers are expected to obey them without question,” Pastor Atwebembeire said in the report.
ALSO READ: Cult members counted forcibly
BBC Africa Eye also talked to a family who opened up their home to a pastor and his wife.
The pastor, in accounts previously reported by this newspaper, was later accused of murdering the host couple’s four-year-old daughter in alleged ritual sacrifice with an intention to get more followers for his church.
The pastor and several others are currently on remand on murder charges.
The mother of the deceased child told BBC Africa Eye: “When you looked at him [the pastor], you would think he was a man of God. He used to praise, worship, and clap his hands. He would pretend to be spiritual, but it was all a lie.”
The BBC Africa Eye report, based on claims by some of the interviewees, concludes that secularism and humanism are on the rise in Uganda, a predominantly Christian country.
