Pastors In Uganda Are Eyeing Next Year’s General Election

Bishop Sheldon Mwesigwa of Ankole Diocese praying for President Yoweri Museveni. Courtesy of State House, Uganda.

KAMPALA— At 55 years old, Archbishop Janani Luwum was more than half the age of Christianity in Uganda. Preparations to celebrate the centenary of the Christian faith in the country were in high gear. The month was February. The year, 1977.

The celebrations were just four months away. But before they could take part in the centenary, the Anglican bishops in Uganda had a message for the head of state. They were concerned about the tyranny and gross human rights violations in the country. And they wanted to draw their concerns to Idi Amin, the president at the time.

On Feb. 8, 1977, the bishops listed their concerns and tasked the archbishop himself with delivering their protest letter to Amin. Luwum obliged. Eight days later, in retaliation, Amin invited a delegation, including religious leaders, and informed them that he had received evidence of treason against the archbishop.

Later that evening, Luwum was shot dead. The government claimed he died in a motor accident. Amin was not happy that Luwum, as a religious leader, became politically active. Luwum’s death sparked a debate on the extent to which the clergy should bring politics to the pulpit.

Pastors form opposition party to “rescue” Uganda

More recently, Uganda’s President Yoweri Museveni has on many occasions called clergy’s activism “meddling” in national politics. In fact, in 2002, Museveni said he could also start baptizing children, in retaliation for what he called the clergy spending more time politicking than “delivering souls to heaven.”

The recent actions of the clergy who joined a political party in Uganda, the National Unity Platform, are an indication that they consider Museveni’s threats just that — threats. Seven evangelical pastors announced that they joined the opposition party “to participate in the struggle to rescue Uganda from the current leadership.” The party is headed by presidential aspirant Robert Kyagulanyi (also called Bobi Wine), a Member of Parliament in Uganda running in Uganda’s 2021 general election. Museveni has ruled Uganda since 1986.

A group of pastors has joined the National Unity Platform, led by presidential hopeful Robert Kyagulanyi. Photo by John Semakula.

The leader of the pastors who joined Bobi Wine’s party, David Ogyambo, said politicians have failed to perform their cardinal duty of improving the living standards of people.

“In the churches where we come from, you can’t even collect tithe of more than sh3,000 ($0.80) in a service. People are living in abject poverty because the politicians who are supposed to be custodians of God’s people have abandoned their role,” Ogyambo said.

The other pastors who joined the party are Julius Nyerere, Steven Wamikke, Kenneth Mugabane, Richard Muhumuza, Steven Kato and Andrew Muwunguzi.

On many occasions, Museveni has said clerics should not preach about politics, but in his current cabinet, one of the ministers, Simon Lokodo, is a Catholic priest. Also, every bishop in the country, upon installation, is given a car by the state.

In 2010, the Anglican Church in Uganda banned its clergy from participating in partisan politics. In a resolution, the house of bishops said no ordained person or commissioned worker is allowed to seek an elective office. If any member of the clergy wishes to join politics, he must resign from serving in the church.

Indeed, in 2012, the then Assistant Archbishop of Kampala Diocese, Bishop Zac Niringiye, opted to retire seven years earlier. Niringiye said he wanted to advocate peace, justice and better leadership in Uganda, which he pushed for during the 2016 general election.

The bishops in 2010 also banned the clergy from openly supporting political parties or carrying party cards. The resolution still allows the clergy to encourage the flock to join elective politics.

However, some clergy in the Anglican church are acting in defiance. Retired Bishop Zabedee Masereka of South Rwenzori Diocese is one of them. Recently, he announced his candidature for a parliamentary seat in Uganda. He plans to contest on a ticket of the ruling party, NRM. Despite the fact that he is retired, Masereka still performs liturgical work as a church leader. To the chagrin of the church, on Masereka’s campaign poster, he is donning clerical robes.

The provincial secretary of the Anglican Church in Uganda, the Rev. Can. Captain William Ongeng, recently appealed to the clergy to respect the 2010 resolution that bars them from active politics. But Bishop Masereka says his mission in politics is to serve God’s people, the elderly, who, he says, have for long been marginalized in society. Uganda recently introduced five special parliamentary seats for the elderly in the national parliament.

Pastor Joseph Kabuleta running for president

Campaign posters for Joseph Kabuleta.

Among the aspirants for next year’s presidential election is Pastor Joseph Kabuleta. Kabuleta, a former sports journalist, is hinging his campaign on financial liberation. He says if the country’s resources are properly managed, the citizens would be wealthy. According to UBOS, the custodian of government statistics, in 2017, 21.7% of Ugandans lived in poverty, up from 19.7% in 2013.

Joseph Kabuleta. Photo courtesy of Kabuleta.

In an interview with Religion Unplugged, Kabuleta said he joined politics to fight for the restoration of the worldview on which the African society had been built, the one that values religion, tradition and morality.

“You can’t expect a politician from the other worldview to deliver the things that are key to the Church in this world view,” Kabuleta said. “We have to have people in government who are entrenched in this belief of freedom of religion.

He said he is joining politics to fight for everyone’s faith, so that people have a right to believe and worship the way they want to.

“At one point, we thought we had freedom of worship and that the freedom was guaranteed, but we reached a moment and realized that it had been tampered with,” Kabuleta said.

Pastor Andrew Muwanguzi, who leads a church in eastern Uganda, hopes to win a seat in Uganda’s parliament in next year’s general election. Muwanguzi told Relgion Unplugged that this is the time when the clergy in Uganda should stand with the flock, to bring about the much needed political change, and that it is the main reason he is joining party politics.

State authorities recently threw Muwanguzi off a radio talk show. Muwanguzi said on the show that the country needs the clergy who can speak truth to power. He added that even in the Bible, there were members of the clergy who spoke truth to power, citing John the Baptist, who was beheaded for the same reason.

“I joined politics because many Ugandans who have challenges which politicians fail to address run to the Church for help,” he said.

Associate Professor of Leadership at Kabale University in Uganda, Mesharch Katusiimeh, told Religion Unplugged that he supports the clergy joining party politics.

“If you are a partisan clergy condemning corruption and immorality, what is wrong with that?” Katusiimeh asked.

He encouraged the clergy who think that things are not going on well in government to continue joining party politics. Katusiimeh noted that even in developed countries, the clergy are influential in the party politics, where they advocate against what they see as evils, such as abortion.

“In Uganda, it seems the clergy have realized that they need to be part of the political elite for their message to sink among the people,” he said. “Even in the Bible, there were religious leaders who were influential, both in religion and politics, including Moses and Joshua. It is possible that the clergy in Uganda are joining party politics to reclaim that lost glory in the Bible.” 

But Don Wanyama, President Museveni’s senior press secretary, told Religion Unplugged that some ordinary Ugandans may masquerade as clergy, joining party politics for political capital. Wanyama insisted that there is no respectable religious leader who would advise the flock to vote for one party against another.

“Religious leaders, just like traditional leaders, should not participate in party politics,” he said.

John Semakula is a Kampala-based correspondent for Religion Unplugged. He also reports for New Vision, Uganda’s leading daily newspaper.