Museveni meets Archbishop Lwanga

President Yoweri Museveni has held a tête-à-tête with Archbishop Cyprian Kizito Lwanga at Nakasero State House.
The meeting between the President and the cleric was reportedly held on April 08, 2018 following a recent phone call the President put through to the man of the cloth who notified him about security fears and attempts on his life.
In his Easter Sunday sermon, Archbishop Lwanga shockingly revealed to the congregation that he had received a warning phone call from a person claiming to work for the state’s intelligence service.
The Archbishop further revealed that the caller warned him that he was likely to become ‘next Janani Luwum.
Archbishop Janani Luwum was murdered in February 1977 allegedly on the orders of the Ugandan President Idi Amin Dada.
The head of the Anglican Church was a critic of President Amin’s regime accusing him of human rights abuse and responsible for the death of many Ugandans and foreigners at the hands of rogue security agencies.
This did not auger well with the fallen late former President who murdered Luwum only to fake an accident in which the authorities claimed he had died.
Like the late Luwum Archbishop Lwanga, current religious leaders under their body; Inter- Religious Council of Uganda have numerously criticized President Museveni’s government for failing to secure the life and property of many Ugandans.
They are also concerned with the fear of life Presidency by President Museveni because of his refusal for the public to discuss transition as called for by the civil society.
Religious leaders have also been outraged by the recent numerous high profile killings and kidnappings of women and young girls and home attacks that have gone unsolved since last year.
Given the concerns President Museveni promised to meet Archbishop Lwanga and listen to his concerns.
The meeting is a follow up of that presidential promise that was communicated by his press secretary Don Wanyama.
Efforts to talk to Wanyama to get details of what was discussed during the meeting were futile as he was unable to pick numerous calls from this reporter.
On Easter, Lwanga reiterated his statement that government is recruiting priests, catechists and seminarians to spy on other religious leaders.
“Let government have courage to call Ntagali (for protestants ), myself or Mubajje (for Muslims) and tell us the information they have about ourselves but some of those you recruit have been expelled from church and are only giving you false information. They will lead to your downfall,”Lwanga said during prayers at Rubaga cathedral.
Lwanga, who is also the chairman of the Uganda Joint Christian Council, warned Museveni that if he continues to listen and act on information given to him by some of the intelligence organs in the country, he would soon see his own downfall.
He said no one can stop government from doing intelligence work because it has been in practice all over the world for many years but warned that whoever is recruited should be truthful to avoid tarnishing other people’s names.
On recruiting men of God to spy for intelligence organs, Lwanga said most of those recruited have in the past been dismissed from the church before being contacted for espionage work by government.
“Some of these people (you have recruited) were dismissed by us because of bad record but are shining before you. Your mind is being poisoned to act on that information they feed you,” he said.
The Archbishop called on politicians to work for the interests of the people who vote them into power rather than selfishly caring about themselves at the expense of the electorates.