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March 17, will mark eight years since over 300 members of the Movement for the Restoration of the Ten Commandments were torched in their church in Kanungu District. Esther Namugoji goes through how the cult leaders stealthily executed their followers...
On March 17, 2000, a little village in Kanungu District witnessed the horrible death of hundreds of cult followers who went up in flames in their makeshift church building. In what was at first thought to be a mass suicide, it was later discovered that over 300 members had gathered for their last day on earth, little knowing that their leaders had prepared to send them to heaven by setting them aflame.
While the news was shocking, the group had been in existence for a decade. Its leaders had presided over a growing movement of people ruling them by visions of the Virgin Mary that only they could see.
In fact, the year before, The New Vision had run a story about the cult that was preparing for the end of the world on December 31, 1999. A young member of the group who had left school told the reporter then that the world would be destroyed and only those in a certain location at the time would survive. The young man said the secret spot was known only to the leaders, Dominic Kataribaabo, Credonia Mwerinde and Joseph Kibwetere who talked to Jesus and Mary. It seemed like the story of another crazy set of people following an even crazier set of leaders.
Joseph Kibwetere
Kibwetere believed the Virgin Mary appeared to him as far back as 1984. He was a Democratic Party politician in Bushenyi and a wealthy farmer and businessman. He was active in the 1980 elections which were rigged in favour of the Uganda People’s Congress (UPC). Defeated, he is said to have left his village for Kabale where he ran a bar. He later returned to his village after the overthrow of the UPC government.
Kibwetere claimed to have recorded a conversation between Jesus Christ and the Virgin Mary who were sad about the sinful world that no longer obeyed the Ten Commandments. It was from here that the group got its name, The Movement for the Restoration of the Ten Commandments of God. It was after meeting another “seer” that Kibwetere put his vision into action. His partner was a woman named Credonia Mwerinde who had gained the interest of Kibwetere’s wife, Theresa.
Credonia Mwerinde
Like the woman who met Jesus at the well, Mwerinde had had different husbands before becoming the seventh wife of her last husband. She sold local brew at a bar and was believed to be a prostitute too. Mwerinde’s husband said she never went to church even once during the marriage. But after sometime without giving birth to a child in this marriage, Mwerinde reportedly saw a vision in which the Virgin Mary told her she was destined for another purpose. Mwerinde’s father, Paulo Kashaku, a former catechist, had also seen a vision of the Virgin Mary, Joseph and Jesus, supposedly in line with a 1960s prophecy by his late daughter. Mwerinde’s father told her that the Virgin Mary had asked her to start preaching.
Mwerinde left her unbelieving husband, and struck out on her own to pray in some caves near Kibwetere’s home where she had more visitations from Mary. Soon word spread about her visions and people came to see her and receive messages from the Virgin Mary.
When Kibwetere’s wife brought Mwerinde to live in their home, the seer and her husband became inseparable and the cult found its beginning. They were also said to be lovers. Mwerinde was the dominating force behind the cult as she dictated whatever happened through her messages. She dressed as a Catholic nun. Apparently, her messages could come through ordinary household articles like cups and pans.
As a result of Mwerinde’s influence, Kibwetere reportedly took his children out of school. He sold his property to feed the disciples who started living on the premises. As villagers became suspicious of the group’s odd lifestyle, they compelled the group to leave their area. The cult members relocated to Kanungu and settled on a farm donated by Mwerinde’s father. The fateful church was reportedly built over her father’s grave.
The group attracted mostly women, and children and some middle-aged men from the Catholic Church. Life in the cult was one of unquestioned obedience, prayer and work on the farm. Alcohol, cigarettes, soap and sex were banned. Mwerinde is said to have once beaten up Kibwetere’s wife for using soap. To avoid breaking the eighth commandment — thou shalt not bear false witness against your neighbour — silence was observed. They instead communicated using signs.
Dominic Kataribaabo
He was a Makerere university graduate and a respected priest who served as a rector of Kitabi Seminary, Bushenyi District and diocesan youth leader at Mbarara. In 1985 he got a scholarship to study for a master’s degree in religious education at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles, California. While here, Kataribaabo is believed to have been in contact with an apocalyptic cult that believed the world would end at the turn of the millennium. He reportedly came back to Uganda with videos of the cult. He expected that his academic achievements would secure him a lofty position in the Catholic church. However, he was posted to a rural parish, which probably left him disillusioned. He subsequently joined Kibwetere and Mwerinde. It was Kataribaabo, the theological authority of the group, who interpreted the visions. In the group there were other former priests, catechists and nuns, who contributed to a book they published about their beliefs.
Published on: Saturday, 15th March, 2008
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