Museveni, Archbishop Lwanga hold private meeting

 

President Yoweri Museveni has held a face to face meeting with Archbishop Cyrian Kizito Lwanga at Nakasero state lodge.

The meeting is reported to have been held on Sunday, April 08, 2018. The meeting comes on the heels of a presidential phone call to the Catholic prelate who expressed concern for his life.

In an Easter Sunday sermon, Archbishop Lwanga informed a shocked congregation that he had received a warning phone call from a person claiming to work for the state's intelligence service. Archbishop Lwanga said the caller warned him that he was likely become the "next Janani Luwum."

Archbishop Janani Luwum was murdered in February 1977 allegedly on the orders of then Ugandan President Idi Amin Dada. Luwum had become a vocal critic of President Amin's rule accusing him of human rights abuse and responsible for the death of many Ugandans at the hands of rogue security agencies.

Archbishop Lwanga and several other religious leaders have lately criticised President Museveni's government for failing to secure the life and property of many Ugandans. The religious leaders concerns were prompted by many high profile killings and kidnappings that have gone unsolved in the last two years.

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.

http://nilepost.co.ug/2018/04/03/museveni-lwanga-discuss-spying-on-religious-leaders/

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.