Rural pastors complain of being sidelined, want to meet Museveni

Rural pastors across the country have complained of being sidelined in government programmes and want to meet President Museveni.

Under their umbrella Truth Defenders of Rural Area Pastors (TDRAP), the priests claim the Kampala-based prominent pastors who usually meet the President push for individual interests and care less about the rural flock.

“Every time we meet you [Museveni], we don’t get the chance to talk to you directly yet we are the people who know the sufferings of the rural areas,” Pastor Robert Nsereko, the chairperson of TDRAP told Journalists in Kampala on Wednesday  

Pastor  Nsereko, who also heads God’s Plan International Ministries-Luweero, further claims that government programmes like Emyooga and Parish Development Model (PDM ), Uganda Women Entrepreneurship Programme, and Youth Livelihood Programme have not benefited Christians in their churches because the implementers claim they work directly with senior pastors in Kampala.

 “This marginalization has to stop, we have on several occasions tried to meet President Museveni to share with him what is going on, but we have been denied an opportunity. We feel frustrated,” he said.

Apostle Joseph Sserwadda, the presiding Apostle of Born Again Faith Federation Uganda, a body that brings together Born Again Christians in Uganda, and senior pastor at Victory Christian Centre, Ndeeba, declined to respond to concerns of rural pastors.

“I am sorry I will not talk about that,” he said before hanging up on the phone.

Apostle William Wanduka, the chief mobiliser of TDRAP, said rural pastors have over the years been ardent mobilisers of the ruling National Resistance Movement (NRM), but many have since given up.

TDRAP, according to Pastor Wanduka has over 50,000 Born Again Christians in various registered churches across Uganda.

“It is an open secret that Born Again Christians support NRM, which we don’t deny, but the fact is some of our colleagues are currently taking a back seat because they support a system that doesn’t appreciate their contribution,” he said.

Pentecostalism is a branch of Christianity that believes in receiving the Holy Spirit after one is born again with the attendant gifts and manifestations such as speaking in tongues, deliverance, and healing among others. In Uganda, the first Pentecostal church was Full Gospel church, Naguru, established in 1960. The movement went underground in the 1970s having been outlawed by President Idi Amin and resurfaced with a bang in the 1980s, especially under the present regime.

Worldwide, Pentecostalism is considered one of the fastest-growing religious movements after Islam. The 2014 National Population Census placed Pentecostal adherents at 11.1 percent of the population (1 in every 10 Ugandans), up from 4.7 percent in 2002.