Police foil murder attempt on Ugandan Archbishop Ntagali

On 23 August the Most Rev Stanley Ntagali, Archbishop of Uganda, and 34 members of the House of Bishops along with the vice-chancellor of Uganda Christian University (UCU) were inspecting a parcel of church-owned land in Ntawo in the Mukono District when the attack occurred.

The bishops had arrived in a university bus to inspect the land following the close of a meeting of the House of Bishops at UCU. When they arrived on the property, a mob appeared and blockaded the bus and began to pile grass and sticks under it and attempted to set it alight.

The Bishop of Mukono, the Rt Rev James Ssebaggala, called the District Police Commander, Fred Ahimbisbwe, who rushed to the scene to break up the mob. One man was arrested in the melee.

A senior source in the Church of Uganda, who asked not to be named as they were not authorised to speak on behalf of the bishops, reported that at their meeting, the bishops had discussed a 10-year development programme for the Church, including the status of a one square mile parcel of land donated to the Church in 1940.

Held in trust for UCU, a portion of the land has been leased to the government’s National Agricultural Research Organization, with the bulk of the land remaining undeveloped.

Under former Vice-Chancellor Prof Stephen Noll, the university proposed building a commercial housing estate on the site to provide income for the Church as well as an agricultural research station for the university. However, squatters had moved on to the land in recent years and built informal settlements.

Church officials have been working to move the squatters off the land, but not all of the 800 new residents are landless peasants. Several walled compounds have been built on the church land with multi-storey homes occupied by senior government leaders, including the state water minister Ronald Kibuule and Brigadier Proscovia Nalweyiso, the senior presidential adviser on defence and security.

At the close of their discussions the bishops decided to inspect the land for themselves, so as to better understand the situation. They contacted the district police commissioner and asked that a security team meet the bishops at the site as past visits had been marked by confrontations.

When the bishops arrived in Ntawo, however, the police were absent — setting the stage for the attack.

The following day the district police commissioner spoke to the opening session of the 23rd provincial assembly, apologising for the incident. “It is true I received the letter from UCU requesting us to accompany the bishops. We were supposed to give you security but I was in a meeting so I did not know that you had gone to the place,” Mr Ahimbisbwe said, according to the [i] Kampala Monitor.

Archbishop Ntagali thanked Mr Ahimbisbwe, saying he and his fellow bishops forgave him and their attackers. “We have forgiven them but they must repent,” he said, adding the attack underscored the breakdown of the rule of law in Uganda.

“We want to protect our land from encroachers, which is part of corruption in Uganda and has to be avoided.”

Ugandan church leaders declined to speak on the record about the incident, pointing to the archbishop’s public remarks. However, concerns have been raised in the Ugandan press and are rife among church leaders that the withdrawal of police protection was not a careless oversight, and that a mob had been hired to attack the bishops.

UCU vice chancellor Dr John Ssenyonyi was perturbed that powerful individuals appeared to be involved in the dispute. He told the [i] Monitor: “How can a powerful official in the army and government be among those trying to grab church land? They have money to buy land elsewhere but they are also acting like they are poor and want to get free land.”

State water minister Mr Kibuule was defiant, telling local newspapers the Church was to blame. “The bishops disguised themselves by travelling in a bus which confused people to mistake them for land grabbers,” he said, adding the bishops were “hiding in God’s name to steal land. We shall resist such an attempt. The church cannot evict tenants illegally.”

Brig Nalweyiso told one newspaper he had purchased the land in good faith and challenged the Church’s ownership of the plot. A spokesman for Prime Minister Ruhakana Rugunda said the government would investigate the incident and take appropriate action.