[Ugnet] Was Kanungu Another RPA ?

[Simon Nume]

17th March 2005.

Police still looking for Kibwetere

By Pius Muteekani Katunzi WEEKLY OBSERVER Was it murder? Was it suicide? Did the demons take advantage of the wobbly followers? Or was it an outright case of madness? All these questions remain unanswered. On March 17, 2000, smoke from the burning church of the followers of the Movement for the Restoration of the Ten Commandments of God billowed through the Kanungu air. The air reeked with the repulsive smell of charred bodies and burnt wood. The prince of death, Joseph Kibwetere, and the priestess of evil, Credonia Mwerinde, had lured their followers into the church, gased it with keresone, bolted the doors and set it on fire. The world was about to come to an end; if God was not ending it by the fall of 1999, then �Saint� Credonia and �Angel� Joseph had to do it in March 2000. Over 500 followers of the sect, some of them children and elderly women, perished in the inferno. Surprisingly, five years later, the government has no answers and actually acts evasive when Kanungu is mentioned. Almost all government officials contacted for this report played ping-pong. Is the manhunt for the three main suspects; Joseph Kibwetere, Credonia Mwerinde and Dominic Kataribabo still on? Or did they too die in the fire? The Police Spokesman, Assuman Mugyenyi, let off a loud laughter when The Weekly Observer inquired about this. �Hahaha, eeh, Kanunguuuu? That is a long time ago! Have you found them so that you get some money for the weekend?� Mugyenyi asked, tongue-in-cheek. Police had placed Shs 2 million on the head of each of the three suspects. After realising the seriousness with which the question had been asked, he reluctantly said that the hunt was still on. �We were once told that they are in Kenya. We used Interpol but we didn�t succeed. We went to Congo but still, we didn�t succeed,� he said on phone. The then Minister of Internal Affairs, Prof. Edward Rugumayo, even declined to give an interview he had earlier agreed to on the matter. �No, no, I don�t want to give inaccurate information. Five years is a long time. The ministry has since had two ministers. So talk to Ndugu Rugunda [the current Minister of Internal Affairs],� he said before hanging up. The government-appointed judicial commission of inquiry to be chaired by Justice Augustine Kania never got to sit even once. The government did not allocate any money to its commission. One of the puzzles that were expected to be unravelled by the inquiry is the fact that hundreds perished but only a handful turned up to claim lost relatives or friends. Efforts to talk to Dr. Rugunda were futile as his phone was on voicemail service much of Monday. His junior, Minister of State, Dr. Kezimbira Miyingo, asked to be contacted later while the Inspector General of Police, Maj. Gen. Katumba Wamala, referred The Weekly Observer back to Police Spokesman, Assuman Mugyenyi. Members of the �commission� 1-Rev. Canon Mugarura Mutana (Chaplain, St. Francis Chapel Makerere University) 2-Rev. Fr. Dr. Lawrence Lugolobi Ssemusu (Chaplain, Uganda Martyrs University Nkozi) 3-Prof. Peter Matovu (Human Intervention and Counselling, Orthodox Church) 4-Christopher Ndozireho (lawyer) 5- Dr. Emilio Ovuga (Associate professor of psychiatry, Makerere University) 6-Sarafiyano Bigirwekya (UP&TC Investigation Department) 7-Dr. Margaret Mungherera [EMAIL PROTECTED]

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