Today marked 46 years since the country witnessed the brutal killing of one of the most influential and virtuous clergymen; the former Archbishop of the Church of Uganda, Janani Jakaliya Luwum.
Bishop Luwum was killed for being too vocal against the extrajudicial killings and torture by Idi Amin Dada’s government. Before his death, Archbishop Luwum suffered extensive torture and his body had several bullet wounds, including one through his mouth.
He was a leader who never wanted to see his people and Ugandans suffer at the hands of the brutal leadership of Amin. Because of this, he made it his role to criticize the evil committed by the then government. By doing so, he also preached peace, love and reconciliation.
Even upon his last and trying moment, he did not give up on his fight for freedom, one would say he traded his life for Ugandans to have peace and freedom.
Unfortunately, years after his death, things are not so different which is why his death is only talked about or resonates in the minds of leaders on 16th February for celebrations only, but it has not acted as a reminder to the leaders that Ugandans deserve freedom and extrajudicial killings must stop due sacrifices of lives made by people like Luwum.
Since his murder, Uganda has had the highest levels of extrajudicial killings, torture and cold-blood murders, Since Gen Amin, Uganda has had 6 presidents who have at some point allowed torture, persecution and extrajudicial killings to take place under their watch as a way of controlling the nation and maintaining their grip to power.
Torture and murder have always featured in Uganda’s political history since the downfall of Amin, there are many reports pinning how former president Dr Milton Obote and his men killed and tortured Ugandans.
Extrajudicial killings and torture are among the key reasons why President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni launched a guerrilla war in 1981. That is why Four months after seizing power in 1986, President Museveni’s National Resistance Army (NRA) government established a Commission of Inquiry to look into the cycle of violence the country has suffered since the post-colonial era.
This looked like a new reformed journey of peace that Uganda was yet to see.
The Commission’s final report whose title was Pearl of Blood that was delivered in October 1994 showed detailed indisposed accounts told by survivors or their families by some of the actors in the armies of presidents Milton Obote and Idi Amin armies 1962 to 1970, 1971 to 1979, and 1980 to July 1985, respectively.
According to the report, the exact number of Ugandans that had lost their lives at the hands of government agents and agencies since independence was impossible to establish. The murder of individuals, mass murders, and arbitrary deprivation of life or extrajudicial executions is a violation of the right to life, one of the most fundamental rights and freedoms of an individual.
On receiving the report President Museveni who had just been in power for 8 years promised to lead Ugandans to the Canan land where they will see no more torture or extrajudicial killing and abductions and murders.
However, as a saying goes Power is always dangerous because it attracts the worst and corrupts the best. The same incidents that happened to Luwum have been seen repeating themselves in President Museveni’s government.
For the past two years, the country has witnessed too much power exhibited by the army, this brings the nostalgias of both Obote and Gen Amin’s soldiers how they used their power to abduct, torture and sometimes kill.
The rampant abductions of opposition supporters who are released later with wounds of torture leave millions of unanswered questions about whether the death of Archbishop Luwum meant something to those leading the Pearl of Africa.
The acts of torture and extrajudicial killings always paint a clear picture that people in power at times don’t fear anymore the influence of the religious leaders as long as they have the army in their pockets.
Last year while speaking at the 45th commemoration of the martyrdom of Archbishop Luwum, the Archbishop of the Church of Uganda Dr Stephen Kaziimba Mugalu also warned that eliminating cruelty allegedly perpetrated by State operatives, and enforcing accountability, would make the killing of Bishop Luwum meaningful.
“Bishop Luwum is remembered as a voice for the voiceless, and also an advocate for human rights. As we remember him, we need to think about protecting life and human rights. I am very disappointed by some people when I read the newspapers; that there are still some people who are torturing others. This is against what the President (Museveni) told Ugandans,” he said.
Bishop Dr Kazimba also alluded that people who are torturing others are disobeying the President of Uganda.
“I want to pray that as we celebrate this day, human rights, peace and the rest should be given priority…, May God help us that the torturers are not accepted and if there are those who have done wrong, they should be brought to courts of law so that the needful is done,” he added.
As the country commemorates the 46th Bishop Luwum’s martyrdom for his fight for human rights, civilians are tried in military court, abductions, long detentions without trial, corruption are still very common in Uganda.
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