Fearless Archbishop Kizito Lwanga. Photo-Facebook.
[Liberation Bulletin]
In a dramatic escalation of its opposition to tyranny the Catholic church in Uganda has taken on Gen. Yoweri Museveni in a New Year’s sermon that’s gone viral.
In a New Year’s message to Ugandans delivered with great passion at Rubaga Cathedral, the seat of the Catholic Church in Uganda, the Archbishop of Kampala, Cyprian Kizito Lwanga, rallied citizens to resist the “bad politics” prevailing under dictator Yoweri Museveni’s rule.
The aged dictator recently scrapped Article 102 (b) from the constitution, which barred anyone aged 75 and above from running for president. The dictator, in power for 32 years, would be 77 by the next elections in 2021.
Gen. Museveni and his loyalist NRM members of parliament (MPs) from his ruling National Resistance Movement (NRM) ruling party nakedly ignored the views of the 85% of Ugandans who in a national poll overwhelmingly opposed the lifting of the 75-year age-limit provision.
The Economist magazine reported that some MPs were bribed $10,000 each, an astronomical sum in a country where national income is below $2,000. It’s also an example of how the dictator abuses the foreign aid money; the U.S. alone sends $1 billion annually. The dictator also flies in a $50 million Gulf Stream jet even though most hospitals lack medicines.
Museveni has paved the way for his life-presidency by killing Article 102 (b). Now even the church has had enough.
“Let us resist bad politics, let us resist bad politics and promote national unity because we’re all interested in this country and also to build a strong future for this country”, declared Archbishop Kizito Lwanga.
Free Uganda (FU) strongly supports this most powerful intervention by Archbishop Cyprian Kizito Lwanga, which we hope will go a long way in awakening and inspiring other leaders in various sectors of society, as well as the Ugandan population in general, to stand up and defend the Ugandan constitution, which is currently under attack by the dictator.
Free Uganda notes with great appreciation the fact that the pronouncements by Archbishop Kizito Lwanga went beyond articulating the immediate widespread concerns by Ugandans about the constitutional subversion relating to Article 102 (b).
It is significant that Archbishop Cyprian Kizito Lwanga also accused Gen. Museveni of political dishonesty, citing various ways in which Museveni has systemically undermined the ruling NRM’s own 10-point Program, which were stipulated by Museveni in his book, “Sowing the Mustard Seed,” several decades ago.
At the heart of the so-called 10-point Program were clearly defined principles that were aimed at the restoration of “…democracy, security of person and property…” and “the consolidation of [national] unity and elimination of all forms of sectarianism…”, and so forth. Yet for 32 years now, the NRM regime, under Gen. Museveni, has disregarded all those principles, and instead created one of the most undemocratic dispensations in the world.
The regime is defined by: mass repression; genocidal massacres with the most recent one being Kasese in November 2016; electoral rigging resulting in Museveni’s theft of the last four presidential elections; corruption to the extent that in November 2017 the Trump Administration alleged in court papers that Museveni and his foreign minister Sam Kutesa were bribed by a U.S. and Hong Kong-based businessman named Patrick Ho who also wired $500,000 from a New York bank to Kutesa’s Uganda account; nepotism and pure greed with Museveni’s wife Janet serving as Education minister and son Gen. Muhoozi Kaenerugaba and brother Gen. Salim Saleh in top positions; and hunger for power on the part of those who rule the country.
Archbishop Cyprian Kizito Lwanga castigated this underlying hypocrisy and dishonesty in politics, where people so leisurely trumpet such glorious principles of democracy and fairness, yet spend all their time subverting and undermining the same.
He challenged the people of Uganda to reclaim those noble principles, saying: “…Let us implement them and do nothing else but for God and our country.”
Archbishop Cyprian Kizito Lwanga has stepped into the frontline of the liberation struggle. He reminds us of the courageous Anglican Archbishop Janan Lowum, murdered by dictator Idi Amin for denouncing his butcherous regime and South Africa’s Desmond Tutu who was one of the most courageous voices against Apartheid.
Ugandans will heed the call and remember this moment as a crucial point in the liberation struggle.
Dr. Vincent Magombe
Secretary Free Uganda Leadership Committee
and Press Secretary FU
