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 R ELIGION,

POLITICS AND CULTS

IN EAST AFRICA

God’s Warriors and Mary’s Saints

E M M A N U E L K . T W E S I G Y E
Religion, Politics and Cults in East Africa is the first major, original, and extensive research-
based study of the apocalyptic and doomsday Catholic Marian Movement and its Benedictine
monastic moral and religious practices, including vows of poverty, celibacy, obedience, daily
contemplation in silence, and hard work. The Marian Movement is presented within the
cultural, historical, political, and religious context of the East African Revival Movement,
the Anglican Balokole Movement, Alice Lakwena’s Holy Spirit Movement, Joseph Kony’s
Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA), and other religio-political liberation movements, includ-
ing the Maji Maji, the Mau Mau, and Nyabingi Liberation Movement. The Marian
Movement was locally known as “Abanyabugoto” and “The Movement for the Restoration
of the Ten Commandments of God.” It began in 1989 as a Catholic women’s Marian devo-
tional and moral reformation movement, founded and headed by Keledonia Mwerinde. Faced
with African cultural patriarchy and male-dominated Catholic Church hierarchy, Mwerinde
recruited Joseph Kibwetere and the Rev. Fr. Dominic Kataribabo to serve as the public face
of the Marian Movement. In response to Catholic hierarchy’s opposition and persecution,
Fr. Kataribabo designed a theology of ritual sacrifice, atonement, and martyrdoms for the
devout Marian Catholics, who were devotees of the Blessed Virgin Mary. He martyred the
Marian devotees in March 2000, in order to transform them into Mary’s saints, and to
liberate their souls and send them to heaven, where they would instantly attain eternal life,
lasting peace, and happiness.

Emmanuel K. Twesigye is a distinguished senior Professor of Religion

and Ethics. He holds the endowed chairs of Aden S. and Mollie Wollam
Benedicts Professor of Christian Studies and Sharp-Davis-Trimble
Professor of Religion at Ohio Wesleyan University in Delaware, Ohio, where
he is also the former Chair of the Department of Religion. He has served
as an NEH fellow at Princeton University and was a fellow at Harvard
University. Originally from Uganda,Twesigye was the Chairman of Religious Studies at
Kyambogo University, where he also served as the Anglican University Chaplain, and a part-
time lecturer of African history at Makerere University Kampala. Twesigye received an M.A.
in cultural anthropology from Wheaton College, an S.T.M. from University of the South,
and an M.A. and Ph.D. in philosophy and religion from Vanderbilt University. He has also
published many major scholarly books and articles, which include Religion and Ethics for a
New Age (2001); Mission Theology and Partnerships: A Handbook (1999); and African Religion,
Philosophy, Christianity in Logos-Christ: Common Grounds Revisited (Lang, 1996). Twesigye
has also been the editor of The Ohio Academy Religion Papers and Zumari Journal.

www.p (h
p e t ettp ://
r l a n g.
g
www.p
com )
 Advance praise for
Religion, Politics and Cults in East Africa

“Emmanuel Twesigye’s book chronicles the different religious traditions and

practices in East Africa. It synthesizes the broader topics of religions,
politics, and health in the overall experience of the Black community. Not
since works by Mbiti has much been written about religious cults in Africa.
This book is at the cutting edge of the best scholarship on the subject. It is
recommended for those interested in appreciating the religious and cultural
experiences of Africans.”
Randolph Quaye, Ph.D., Associate Professor and Director of the
Black World Studies Department, Ohio Wesleyan University
 Religion,

Politics and Cults

in East Africa
Bible & Theology in Africa

Knut Holter

General Editor

Vol. 11

PETER LANG
New York Washington, D.C./Baltimore Bern
Frankfurt Berlin Brussels Vienna Oxford
 Emmanuel K. Twesigye

Religion,

Politics and Cults

in East Africa

God’s Warriors

and Mary’s Saints

PETER LANG
New York Washington, D.C./Baltimore Bern
Frankfurt Berlin Brussels Vienna Oxford
 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Twesigye, Emmanuel K.
Religion, politics and cults in East Africa: God’s warriors
and Mary’s saints / Emmanuel K. Twesigye.
p. cm. — (Bible and theology in Africa; v. 11)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
1. Africa, East—Religion. 2. Religion and politics—Africa, East.
3. Christianity and politics—Africa, East. 4. Religion and state—Africa,
East. 5. Church and state—Africa, East. 6. Cults—Africa, East. I. Title.
BL2464.T84 201’.7209676—dc22 2010009688
ISBN 978-1-4539-0117-5
ISSN 1525-9846

Bibliographic information published by Die Deutsche Nationalbibliothek.

Die Deutsche Nationalbibliothek lists this publication in the “Deutsche
Nationalbibliografie”; detailed bibliographic data is available
on the Internet at http://dnb.d-nb.de/. (http://dnb.d-nb.de/. )

The paper in this book meets the guidelines for permanence and durability
of the Committee on Production Guidelines for Book Longevity
of the Council of Library Resources.

© 2010 Peter Lang Publishing, Inc., New York

29 Broadway, 18th floor, New York, NY 10006
www.peterlang.com (http://www.peterlang.com )

All rights reserved.

Reprint or reproduction, even partially, in all forms such as microfilm,
xerography, microfiche, microcard, and offset strictly prohibited.

Printed in Germany
 In Celebration
Of
All the Martyrs of God
In East Africa
&
All Saints & Holy Servants
Of God
Everywhere and in Every
Religious Tradition
 TABLE OF CONTENTS

Acknowledgments ........................................................................................ xi
Preface......................................................................................................... xiii

Chapter One
AN INTRODUCTION: GOD’S WARRIORS, LIBERATION
MOVEMENTS & MARY’S MARTYRS.................................................... 1
1. Introduction ......................................................................................................1
2. The Marian Movement as God’s Agency of Redemption:
Exorcism, Therapy and Healing of the Wounded World.................................. 4
3. Kanungu as God’s New Chosen Center of Apocalyptic Revelation
And Mary’s Salvation in the World.................................................................. 8
4. Problems of Field Data and Correct Interpretation.........................................12
A. Problems of Secrecy, Codes of Silence and Tragedy ............................. 13
B. Problems of Dealing with Censorship and Cult-like Silence.................. 17
5. Treatment of Marian Ritual Murders as Christian Martyrdoms .....................22
6. The Church Fireas Christian Mass Martyrdoms, Atonements,
And a Holy Path to Heaven ............................................................................24
7. African Culture, Politics and Objections to Exhume the Dead ...................... 30
8. New Religious and Cultural Answers for the Marian Movement’s
Ritual and Self-Sacrificial Deaths................................................................... 43
NOTES ............................................................................................................... 45

Chapter Two
PROBLEMS OF AFRICAN CULTURES, FAITH & REASON
IN RELIGION............................................................................................. 51
1. Divine Establishment of African Political Institutions and Theocracies ........51
2. Problems of Subjectivity and the Assignment of Cultural
Or Religious Value to African Cultural Ideals and Practices ......................... 53
3. Perfection, Self-Sacrificial Death as Atonement ............................................ 56
4. Religious Evolution, Beliefs and Mythologization of Life.............................59
5. Constitutional Freedoms of Religion and Religious Tragedy ........................ 67
6. Economic Theory for the Marian Movement and Tragedies.......................... 70
7. Mary’s Catholic Moral Reform Movement’s Parallels
To the Anglican Balokole Movement in East Africa....................................... 74
NOTES ............................................................................................................... 83
viii Religion, Politics & Cults in East Africa

Chapter Three
CHURCH AUTHORITY, STATE POWER AND RESISTANCE
MOVEMENTS ............................................................................................ 85
1. Introduction ....................................................................................................85
2. Religion, Politics, Dissent and Persecution ................................................... 91
3. Alice Lakwena’s Holy Spirit Movement & Protest in Northern Uganda .....105
4. Joseph Kony’s Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) in Northern Uganda .......... 116
5. The Islamic Allied Democratic Forces(ADF) in Western Uganda...............121
NOTES ............................................................................................................129

Chapter Four
ANGLICAN HEGEMONY, CATHOLIC MARGINALIZATION
AND PROTEST MOVEMENTS............................................................. 133
1. Systematic Catholic Marginalization ...........................................................133
2. Joseph Kibwetere and Keledonia Mwerinde Form
A Marian Devotion Leadership Team .......................................................... 141
3. The Blessed Virgin Mary Chooses Her New Agents of Redemption. ......... 143
4. The Movement’s Membership and Catholic Religious Affiliation .............. 146
5. Escapism, Apocalyptic Religious Teachings and Tragedy...........................151
6. Despair and Depression Led to the Marian Mass Murders
And Martyrdoms...........................................................................................154
NOTES .............................................................................................................158

Chapter Five
MARY’S APPARITIONS & CALL FOR MORAL
TRANSFORMATION OF THE CHURCH &WORLD ....................... 161
1.Introduction ...................................................................................................161
2. Keledonia Mwerinde’s Conversion, Changed Life
And New Dress Code as a Nun ...................................................................162
3.Keledonia Mwerinde Appointed Male Leaders to Deal with Patriarchy.......169
4. Mwerinde Recruits Kibwetere Based on Marian Visions ............................ 180
NOTES .............................................................................................................188

Chapter Six
MARY’S APOSTLES OF SALVATION
AND PROPHETS OF DOOM ................................................................. 189
1. Introduction ..................................................................................................189
2. The Centrality of Mary’s Apparitions and Visions ......................................195
3. The Movement as Mary’s Association for Moral Crusade...........................198
4. Movements and Temptations of Power ........................................................205
5. George Orwell’s Animal Farm Scenario ......................................................208
6. Keledonia Mwerinde’s Conversion & Transformed Mode of Life .............. 213
NOTES .............................................................................................................217
 Table of Contents ix

Chapter Seven
MARY’S MORAL REFORM MOVEMENT AND CATHOLIC
CHURCH HOSTILITY ........................................................................... 219
1. The Local Catholic Bishops’ Skepticism and Hostility................................ 219
2. The Marian Movement Leaders’ Despair .....................................................223
3. Problems of God’s Infinite Time and Human Chronological Time ............. 226
4. The Marian Visions and the Catholic Tradition and History........................ 226
NOTES ............................................................................................................229

Chapter Eight
GOD’S HOLY SERVANTS &MARY’S SAINTS ................................. 231
1. History and Tradition as Foundations for Change
And Protest Movements ...............................................................................231
2. God’s Servants and Saints within an African Traditional
Cultural World-View & Theocracy ..............................................................232
3. Depicting Marian Devotees and the HSM Victims
As Christian Martyrs and Saints ...................................................................233
4. Obedient Disciples, Christ and Saints of Mary ............................................ 241
NOTES .............................................................................................................244

GLOSSARY........................................................................................................ 245
BIBLIOGRAPHY ............................................................................................. 251
INDEX .................................................................................................................. 261
 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I am especially indebted to Bishop John Baptist Kakubi, the retired Bishop of
Mbarara Catholic Diocese and the Archbishop Paul Bakyenga of Mbarara Catholic
Archdiocese and Western Province, for granting me audience and answering my
intrusive questions concerning their roles in the ecclesiastical alienation of the new
apocalyptic and moral reformist Marian Movement leaders and their followers. They
provided valuable information and important pastoral letter, which they had written to
the Marian Movement leaders, denouncing the errant doomsday prophecies.
My Uganda research assistants include: Ms. Margarite Tibayungwa, who
provided me with newspaper articles and valuable contacts; Chief John Karooro, the
Dean of Kinkizi University College, Provia Atuhaire, Caroline Ayebare and Oliver
Nankunda made it possible to carry out the research with some reasonable ease and
comfort. Without their valuable input, the research in Uganda would have been
impossible. Some of my relatives and friends, especially the Rev. Gershom Kalenzi
Tumuhairwe, Dr. William and Mrs. Vicky Muhairwe generously supported the
project and provided the essential necessities of housing and transportation. Other
relatives and friends provided security, food, information, contacts, advice and moral
support. Their support was invaluable and indispensable. I am truly indebted to them.
I am also grateful to a great number of people whom I interviewed for this book.
Only a selected few are mentioned here. I am truly grateful to Mrs. Theresa
Kibwetere, who was the first 12 Apostles of the Marian Movement, which Joseph
Kibwetere and Keledonia Mwerinde, co-founded in her home in Kabumba, Ntungamo
in1989. Mrs. Kibwetere was gracious enough to provide the secret insider’s core
information concerning the Marian Movement. I am also grateful to Mrs. Theresa
Tibayungwa for her commentary and insight on the Kibweteres' lives before and the
founding of the Marian Movement. She also provided information on Mrs. Seforoza
Bamurumba, her long time neighbor in Kakoba, Mbarara, who died in the Movement.
I am truly indebted to the students, who contributed ideas for improvements and
served as research assistants and editors, especially Jerry Newell, Asegedech
Shimellis, Sam Chesser, Matthew Mackenzie and Ashley Kniola. Matthew and
Ashley did excellent work, as senior assistant editors.
Ultimately, I am truly grateful to Ohio Wesleyan University Provost David
Robbins and Prof. Richard Fusch, the former Academic Dean, for the generous
institutional and administrative support for this scholarly project. The University
provided some generous travel and research funds. In addition, the University granted
me, a scholarly leave to write this book. The University purchased for me the
necessary computer hardware and software to assist me in my research. The
University also provided the necessary secretarial assistance.
Finally, I am grateful to all the people, who have made this book possible.
Nicole Grazioso and Heidi Burns of Peter Lang Publishing for their valuable
assistance in getting this book published in a timely manner. Gratitude is also
expressed to my family members, who remained patient and forgiving, when I missed
some birthdays and other family events because I was away on research for the book!

Professor Emmanuel Kalenzi Twesigye, OWU

 PREFACE
You are invited to join me in some exciting intellectual travels and sometimes
frightening research adventures in East Africa. This book has been extensively
researched in East Africa beginning in 1999 through 2009. This is a scholarly
book in both its research and impartial academic analysis of the complex religio-
cultural field data. However, it has been deliberately written in a simpler style in
order to reach and communicate to a broader audience in the fields of Liberation
Theology, African Studies, African Religion, Religion and Politics, Cultural
Studies, Anthropology, Women’s Studies, Religious Studies, Church History,
Marian Studies, Biblical Studies, apocalyptic movements and doomsday cults.
Taking into account this intended broad scope of reading audiences, academic
jargon and technical language have been either avoided or kept to a minimum.
When technical language or African terms have been used, they have been
explained either in the text or in a detailed endnote and glossary. For advanced
readers and students detailed endnotes and sources have been provided at the end
of each chapter.
In addition, some endnotes also explain some issues that could not be
explained in the main text. This has been done for the sake of providing fuller
information of contexts of events and possible alternative religious or cultural
meanings of words, rituals or events. With the exception of the introduction, each
chapter has been written to stand alone, so as to make it usable in college or
university courses, by teachers, professors and students from different disciplines.
The book mainly covers new theocentric, societal, moral and cultural
reformist, religio-political liberation and messianic movements in East Africa.
They include the following: the Maji Maji in the former German East Africa
(Tanzania), the Nyabingi Liberation Movement in Western Uganda, the East
African Revival Movement (EARM), which is also known as the Balokole
Movement; Jomo Kenyatta’s Mau Mau Liberation Movement in Kenya; Yoweri
Museveni's National Resistance Movement (NRM) in Uganda, Alice Auma
(Lakwena or Messiah)’s Holy Spirit Movement (HSM), and its military wing,
which was called the Holy Spirit Mobile Forces (HSMF) in Northern and Eastern
Uganda; Joseph Kony’s Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) and the apocalyptic
Movement for the Restoration of the Ten Commandments of God (MRTCG).
However, the book puts its main focus on the MRTCG or the Marian
Movement. The book provides the first extensive academic analysis of the Marian
Movement within its Catholic historical context, as well as the correlative
traditional African cultural, linguistic, moral, religious, historical, political and
philosophical context.
xiv Religion, Politics & Cults in East Africa

Mrs. Theresa Kibwetere=s information was extremely invaluable since she

was a central leader in the Marian Movement within Mbarara Catholic Diocese.
She was the credible Movement=s spokeswoman to the Catholic women while
Joseph Kibwetere, her husband, became the Movement=s spokesman to the men
and tried to recruit them, especially high-ranking or respectable senior Catholic
priests like the Reverend (Rev.) Fathers (Fr.) Paul Ikazire, Joseph Mary
Kasapurari and Dominic Kataribabo, into the moral reformist Marian Movement.
Leading Catholic priests and nuns were targeted for recruitment into this Catholic
lay founded moral reformist Marian Movement in order to make it acceptable to
the Catholic Church hierarchy in Mbarara.
Subsequently, Joseph Kibwetere became the public face and spokesman of
Keledonia Mwerinde=s Marian Moral Reform Movement which they incorporated
into a religious association and descriptively named it as: The Movement for the
Restoration of the Ten Commandments of God (MRTCG or the Movement). Mrs.
Kibwetere was one of the founding and original members of the Marian
Movement’s inner circle, which was known as Twelve Apostles (Entumwa) of
The Movement for the Restoration of the Ten Commandments of God.
Mrs. Kibwetere disclosed how the moral reformist apocalyptic Marian
Movement was introduced to them by Keledonia Mwerinde and how Joseph
Kibwetere, her loving and caring husband, had been converted, by Mwerinde into
her new moral reformist Marian Movement. She also explained how Kibwetere
was duped into becoming its figure-head in order to provide the necessary
financial support and credibility to the new Marian Moral Reform Movement.
However, as the Marian Movement became better established, Mrs. Theresa
Kibwetere was overshadowed and overthrown by Keledonia Mwerinde, as co-
head of her household with Joseph Kibwetere, her husband. Mrs. Kibwetere
resented this state of affairs in her home. Later, Mrs. Kibwetere became clinically
depressed due to loss of control over her household affairs and the realization that
Keledonia Mwerinde had also gained total control over Joseph, her husband,
along with the family investments and economic resources. Subsequently, at the
urging of Keledonia Mwerinde, and despite Theresa Kibwetere’s protests, Joseph
Kibwetere sold his prized exotic cattle, businesses and liquidated his investments.
He did this in order to buy food and other provisions for the members of the
Marian Movement, who had come and camped at his home. Mrs. Kibwetere and
her children felt helpless to stop the depletion of their economic resources.
I am also indebted to the Rev. Fr. Paul Ikazire for the Marian Movement=s
inside information. Fr. Ikazire provided important inside information about the
Marian Movement and its main leaders, including their central beliefs and main
roles and activities within the secretive Marian Movement.
Fr. Ikazire=s information was very invaluable for this book. He was the only
surviving senior Catholic priest, who was a former key member and leader of the
 Preface xv

Marian Movement. He was one of the original Twelve Apostles (Entumwa) of the
apocalyptic Marian Movement. Fr. Ikazire was also a long time friend of Fr.
Dominic Kataribabo, who was the main architect of the Marian Movement=s
theology of atonement for sins through ritual self-sacrifices, as voluntary Christian
martyrdoms, and holy death, as an acceptable holy atonement and a holy
sacramental religious path to God, and the attainment of eternal salvation, and
peace in heaven.
I am especially indebted to Bishop John Baptist Kakubi, the retired bishop of
Mbarara Catholic Diocese and Archbishop Paul Bakyenga of Mbarara Catholic
Archdiocese and Western Province, for granting me audience and answering my
intrusive questions concerning their role in the alienation of the new apocalyptic
and moral reformist Marian Movement leaders and their followers. They provided
valuable information and important pastoral letters to the Movement leaders.
Some of the material in this book has been presented at the American
Academy of Religion in 2002 and 2004. Some material was presented at GLCA
(Great Lakes Colleges Association) conferences in Black World Studies and some
of the material was also presented to the Ohio Academy of Religion (OAR) in
1999, 2001, 2002, 2003 and 2005. Portions of data were also were presented in
public lectures at Ohio Wesleyan University in 2002-2003 and 2007-2010. The
feedback was invaluable for this book.
Therefore, the material presented, analysis and arguments advanced in this
book have been tested and distilled by this academic process and public discourse.
The book is a product of a laborious field research in East Africa and long
intellectual process. Nevertheless, it remains a work in progress. I will write a
second book that analyzes the teachings of the Marian Movement within a Roman
Catholic theological perspective and monastic historical tradition for advanced
students of Christian theology, Mariology, Church history and doomsday cults.
Many Africans are like the Haitians and other Caribbean people. Most of
them still live in a world dominated by God, as the Holy, Transcendent Creative
Spirit, the ancestors, spiritual beings, such as good and evil spirits. The African
cosmology, ontology and world-view are almost akin to the world of the Hebrew
Scriptures and in the New Testament. Prophets still see visions of God. They
receive God’s new revelations and demons still possess people, and they are cast
out through rituals of prayers and exorcisms using consecrated holy water (Maji)
and holy oil. Alice Lakwena’s Holy Spirit Movement, in Northern Uganda and the
Marian Movement, in Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, and the Eastern Republic of the
Congo, became popular among rural Catholics because of these healing prayers,
exorcisms and traditional African religio-cultural ritual practices. These practices
were meaningful and attractive to the rural Catholics.
Within the traditional Africa theocentric world-view, cosmology, and
ontology, all societal distress, misfortunes, disasters, violence, diseases and pre-
xvi Religion, Politics & Cults in East Africa

mature deaths, are also traditionally religiously and culturally perceived within the
African context. Subsequently, these evils or distresses are attributed to the
supernatural forces. This includes God’s anger, judgment and divine punishment,
or as the evil results of enemies, evil-spirits, witchcraft and sorcery. As result,
diseases are expected to be healed through special healing prayers, exorcisms,
magic and the laying on of hands.
The African Traditional Religion, the Pentecostal Church, the Catholic
Charismatic Movement and the Marian Movement are examples of these African
religious groups, which explicitly confront and challenge the Devil’s evil
presence and destructive works in God’s world. They ritually invoke the mighty
cleansing, healing and restorative power of God; and in the Holy Name of God,
they command the Demonic powers of the Devil and evil spirits to leave the sick
or possessed people. They sing, pray and use sacred objects, including fire,
Bibles, crucifixes, consecrated water, and oil to ritually cleanse them, and
exorcise ritual pollution and defiling evils, and thereby, healing and curing them.
These forms of faith-healing and exorcism only provide effective cures for
diseases, which are evil manifestations of the demonic forces and the Devil, rather
than those which are due to bacteria and viruses.
Therefore, serious medical and religious problems arise, when there is no
clear method for religious leaders and their loyal followers to know or identify
and distinguish the different modes of causality for the serious diseases. As a
result, during the 1980s and 1990s, the prophets and charismatic leaders of the
Pentecostal Church, the Holy Spirit Movement and the Marian Movement, among
others, tragically preached that they could effectively heal and cure all diseases,
including HIV/AIDS, through the patients’ faith, healing prayers, exorcisms and
the laying of hands. It did not work. Like magic, prayers do not cure HIV/AIDS.
Consequently, many seriously ill people needlessly died of their diseases
because of their misplaced religious faith. This is also true for the members of the
Marian Movement, who died self-sacrificial deaths as God’s Martyrs and Mary’s
Saints, hoping to ascend to God, in heaven, through ritual deaths and the flames
of fire in Kanungu, on holy Friday, March 17, 2000. These Marian devotees died
for their faith and hope of God’s salvation through the Blessed Virgin Mary’s
intervention and instantaneous deliverance from evil. We hope that these Marian
devotees, martyrs and other saints did not believe, hope, and live holy lives in a
holy quest for divine salvation, and sacrifice their lives in vain.

Emmanuel K. Twesigye, PhD

Benedicts Professor of Christian Studies;
Sharp - Davies - Trimble Professor of Religion
Ohio Wesleyan University,
Delaware, OH 43015, USA
 Chapter One

AN INTRODUCTION:
GOD’S WARRIORS, LIBERATION
MOVEMENTS
AND MARY’S MARTYRS
This book is based on extensive field research data from East Africa beginning
in 1999 to the end of 2009.1 The book represents a serious critical analysis of
original academic field research data and its correlative scholarly approach to the
study, analysis and interpretation of the data within the context of sensitive
African cultural values, philosophy, the Traditional Religion, Christianity, the
Holy Scriptures and history. Here, religion is functionally defined as a collective
dimension of societal system of beliefs, values and ritual practices in quest of
divine salvation or peace, in the presence of God, as the nameless, “Holy,
Transcendent Creative Cosmic Spirit or Energy and Healing or Redeeming Holy
Mystery.” This is the African interrelated complex context, which has implicitly
shaped the explicit religious, cultural and political data and analysis in this book.
The book also both critiques and corrects some the previous erroneous theories
and publications. They were intellectually misguided because they were based on
inaccurate, biased, vindictive and misleading local media reports.

1. Introduction

These extensive field research data and analysis, have uncovered many serious
errors and misrepresentations of religious data in many publications and media
reports, articles by journalists. The errors were mainly the results of some
inherent ignorance of concerning the complex symbolic nature and sacramental
nature and societal functions of religion of religion in moral education, the
shaping cultures, moral values and politics. Other serious errors were due to
xenophobia and some inherent or unconscious religious biases and
misconceptions of the traditional Catholic sacraments, strict moral codes of
conduct and monastic practices, as forms of superstation, magic and cultic
practices. These misconceptions led to the media false reports and allegations
that the members of the Catholic Marian Movement ate real human flesh as “the
body of Christ,” and drank real human blood as “the blood of Christ.”
2 Religion, Politics & Cults in East Africa

In addition, there was a misunderstanding of new or messianic religious

movements and radical liberationist movements. They were mistakenly labeled
as dangerous “cults” in the media. These simplistic theories led to serious
distortions of the African rural region-political liberationist and messianic moral
perfectionist movements as “cults.” As a tragic error, these complex African
religio-political movements were caricatured as mere destructive evil “cults,”
which were led by irrational or delusional “false prophets,” “false messiahs” and
“evil cult leaders.” However, this was both a false and tragic misrepresentation
of these religio-political movements and their leaders.
Some of the movements discussed in this book have caused serious pain to
the people and disruption in Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, Tanzania, the Democratic
Republic of the Congo, and Sudan. The carefully selected movements for study
are both religiously and politically significant movements. They include the
following: the Maji Maji in the former German East Africa (Tanzania), the
Nyabingi Liberation Movement in Western Uganda, the East African Revival
Movement (EARM), which is also known as the Balokole Movement; Jomo
Kenyatta’s Mau Mau Liberation Movement in Kenya; Yoweri Museveni's
National Resistance Movement (NRM) in Uganda, Alice Auma (Lakwena or
Messiah)’s Holy Spirit Movement (HSM), and its military wing, which was
called the Holy Spirit Mobile Forces (HSMF) in Northern and Eastern Uganda;
Joseph Kony’s Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) and the apocalyptic Movement
for the Restoration of the Ten Commandments of God (MRTCG).2
Most of the above movements are merely outlined in their beliefs and
activities. They are briefly covered in this book because there are many
publications, which have extensively discussed them. For academic purposes, the
primary research and main focus of this book have been deliberately placed on
the more recent and less researched religio-political movements, especially the
HSM, LRA and MRTCG. As a result of an extensive and careful deliberation,
the present volume has been condensed and intentionally more focused on the
Catholic moral reformist, religious liberationist, apocalyptic3 and Marian
doomsday Movement for the Restoration of the Ten Commandments of God,
which is variously referred to as: “The Marian Movement” and “MRTCG.”
The Marian Movement’s main doomsday prophecies, apocalyptic teachings,
and extreme monastic moral practices are presented and discussed within the
religious, cultural, economic and political context of countries of East Africa,
and the surrounding countries of Rwanda, Burundi and the Democratic Republic
4
of the Congo. However, Uganda takes center stage because of recent liberation
and messianic movements, including the MRTTCG, HSMF and the LRA.
The MRTCG was founded in 1989, as God=s new chosen holy Nation, the
New Israel. Uganda was declared to be the Blessed Virgin Mary and God=s new
apocalyptic Global Center of Salvation. The Marian Movement was God=s
 God’s Warriors, Liberation Movements & Mary’s Martyrs 3

messianic agent of salvation for the entire world. For MRTCG or the Marian
Movement leaders, Uganda replaced Israel, which was founded by the Prophet
Moses based on the Ten Commandments of God. Uganda was chosen by God
because of its strong witness of the Christian Martyrs to serve as God’s elect
Nation and chosen location of his new apocalyptic center of holiness, moral
5
perfection, peace and divine salvation.
During the 1980s and early 1990s, the NRM Government of Uganda made
serious attempts to become nonsectarian, although it was predominantly filled by
Anglican political elites, and thereby, covertly perpetuating the problematic
British colonial structure of Anglican political hegemony. This elitist, autocratic,
oppressive and sectarian Anglican hegemony had traditionally marginalized and
excluded qualified Catholics, Muslims and the traditionalists from kinships and
key political positions in the local and the Central Government.
Nevertheless, in 1995, the NRM Government, guided by President Yoweri
Museveni formulated a new, religiously inclusive Constitution. It protected
religious diversity and freedoms of conscience, religion and its practice from the
interference of the State. This is an important separation of Church and State
realms that is almost akin to the First Amendment of the American Constitution,
which reads as follows: “Congress shall make no law respecting an
establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging
the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to
assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.” In
contrast, the freedoms of religion and conscience as stated in the Ugandan
Constitution are broader. They are:
ARTICLE 29:
Protection of freedom of conscience, expression, movement, religion, assembly and
association.
(1) Every person shall have the right to—
(a) Freedom of speech and expression which shall include freedom of the press and
other media;
(b) Freedom of thought, conscience and belief which shall include academic freedom in
institutions of learning;
(c) Freedom to practice any religion and manifest such practice which shall include the
right to belong to and participate in the practices of any religious body or organisation
in a manner consistent with this Constitution;
(d) Freedom to assemble and to demonstrate together with others peacefully and
unarmed and to petition; and
(e) Freedom of association which shall include the freedom to form and join
associations or unions, including trade unions and political and other civic
organisations. (The Constitution of The Republic of Uganda, 1995)

The preparations for the above constitutional provision made it possible for
the Marian Movement’s application to be legally recognized and registered as a
NGO (Non-Governmental Organization) in Uganda, to be accepted. The Marian
4 Religion, Politics & Cults in East Africa

Movement’s main stated objectives and purposes, included providing moral

education, development and Marian devotional activities were accepted by the
State of Uganda and the Marian Movement’s apocalyptic religious teachings and
moral activities were protected by the State despite the Mbarara Catholic
bishops’ protest and persecution of the Marian Movement leaders. The State had
no interest in the doctrinal and moral teachings of the Marian Movement, as long
as they did not break the existing laws of the country.

2. The Marian Movement as God==s Agency of Redemption:

Exorcism, Therapy and Healing of the Wounded World
In the 1980s there was great instability in Africa. This was particularly the case
in Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, Congo, Ethiopia, Somalia and Sudan. There were
many refugees, droughts, famines and other sources of serious trauma, such as
deadly diseases, which were due to the prevalence of wars, violence and abject
poverty.6 In the 1980s, when the Marian Movement emerged, there was a great
prevailing existential fear or angst caused by HIV/AIDS, a dreaded new deadly
disease, which had already killed several millions of people in East Africa,
especially in Uganda. HIV/AIDS was dreaded mainly because it was incurable.7
Moreover, the victims of the disease died a horrible death. The Movement
leaders claimed that HIV/AIDS was God=s incurable plague8 sent into the world
as punishment to people for sins and evils of homosexuality, sexual promiscuity
9
and corruption.
The apocalyptic Marian Movement leaders noted that there were new
antibiotic-resistant deadly strains of tuberculosis and STDs (sexually transmitted
diseases), which were part of God=s punishment for the sins of economic greed
leading to corruption, prostitution, theft and environmental degradation.
Deforestation, as well as car and industrial emissions, which had contributed to
global warming, brought malaria infested mosquitoes, malaria and West Nile
fever epidemics, where they never existed before the 21st century.
Tragically, this new spread of malaria was particularly deadly because it was
of a newly mutated strain of malaria that was resistant to traditional anti-malaria
drugs like chloroquine and malaquine.10 For these unfortunate people, the world
seemed to have become a hostile environment, in which to live. From their
predicament and pessimistic perspective and world-view, it seemed that the
world was coming to an end.
In reality, for many Marian Movement members, much of life in the world
was coming to an end through ritual martyrdom, as a supposed quick self-
sacrificial holy path to heaven and salvation. This was also true, in as much as
one looks at the dramatic manner in which it was transformed when they joined
the monastic and celibate Marian Movement. It had figuratively ended for these
Marian devotees, at least in the way in which they had traditionally both
 God’s Warriors, Liberation Movements & Mary’s Martyrs 5

experienced it and known it, before joining the apocalyptic, moral reform and
doomsday Marian Movement. Therefore, the Marian Movement=s apocalyptic
prophecies and doomsday predictions for the impending end of the world
became meaningful and credible to many of these already psychologically
traumatized and suffering people.
Consequently, some of these very traumatized and fear-filled people eagerly
welcomed and accepted the MRTCG leaders as God=s true new and apocalyptic
11 12
prophets, messiahs and Apostles (Entumwa) within a perishing world. The
MRTCG leaders were able to attract many Catholic followers because they
claimed to heal diseases through prayers, by the laying on of holy hands and
through special exorcisms. Prayers of exorcisms were a regular component of
the healing services that were ritually led and sacramentally performed by
Catholic priests and their trained assistants. The Marian Movement both
promised and provided some components of badly needed therapy and medical
treatment to the poor people in rural areas free of charge. The Marian Movement
leaders also appealed to some desperate sick people, particularly, the HIV/AIDS
suffers because these religious leaders claimed to have been given special
powers, by God and the Blessed Virgin Mary to cure HIV/AIDS for all the
people, who believed, repented all their sins, and joined the Marian Movement.
It is within these overwhelming existential conditions of angst, anxiety and
serious societal, political, and socioeconomic hardships, and other anxiety-
causing state of affairs, such as the intense fear for the perceived impending
doomsday, at the end of the Second Millennium that constituted the main
contexts, within which some liberationist movements like the HSM and LRA
emerged. The Movement for the Restoration of the Ten Commandments of God
also emerged and ministered to very anxious and needy people. This is the kind
of angst and daily context of existential dread, in which the apocalyptic and
doomsday Marian Movement took root and ministered to the discouraged, and
both the religiously and politically marginalized traumatized, especially the
traditionally politically marginalized and frustrated Catholics. This also partly
explains why the doomsday Marian Movement attracted many devout Catholics,
especially the poorly educated, impoverished and rural Catholic women. They
needed little persuasion to believe that the world was corrupt and that it would
soon come to an end as result of God’s holy judgment and punishment.
This is the context of angst in which the apocalyptic and Marian Movement
leaders emerged and brought God=s new apocalyptic revelation of divine
judgment and fiery punishment for a sinful and corrupt world and its rebellious
and corrupt inhabitants, as was the case of Noah=s sinful generation. Ultimately,
it was in response to the above context of angst that these liberationist and
radical moral reformist apocalyptic Marian Movement leaders preached God=s
mercy, saving grace and salvation for all the sinners, who heard God=s message
6 Religion, Politics & Cults in East Africa

of warning, repented their sins, sold their property and gave the proceeds to the
poor or to the leaders of the Catholic Marian Movement.
Later, these Marian devotees came and joined the Benedictine-like and
cloistered Marian Movement’s monastic community. They diligently lived
together, in a joint holy quest for divine salvation. This holy quest was
characterized by repentance and living a new reformed and simple holy life
within the Marian Movement’s collective, contemplative, celibate and monastic
Marian Community. They also constantly strived to attain both moral virtue and
spiritual perfection based on the strict observation of God=s Ten Commandments.
In addition to a vow of celibacy (chastity), extreme fasting, silent
contemplative prayers, and hard work, the Marian Movement members were
required to take vows of obedience and contemplative prayer in holy silence
(Kusirika). The code of holy silence transformed life within the Marian
Community into a permanent silent spiritual retreat. These austere monastic
measures were devised as religious and moral strategies to combat immorality,
idleness and temptations to gossip and sin. They were meant as a holy path of
life on the spiritual quest and journey to God, in heaven. For instance, celibacy
and the code of silence promoted observation of the Ten Commandments.
Invariably, the Marian Movement leaders constantly preached that the world
and its rebellious people were evil, greedy and corrupt. They warned that unless
people obeyed God=s message of warning and repented of their sins and
reformed their lives following God=s moral laws as revealed to the Prophet
Moses in the form of the Ten Commandments, which the Marian Movement
preached, that they were doomed to burn in God’s impending fire that would
come down from heaven, like a tropical thunderstorm.
Many Catholics and Anglicans in Uganda, such as the Balokole13 (members
of the spiritual and moral reform movement within the Anglican Church of East
Africa that emerged in 1935), were already condemning corruption in State and
Church affairs. As result, some of them did not perceive the MRTCG to be
either strange or dangerous, as an extreme Christian moral reform and spiritual
renewal movement. Therefore, these Marian Catholics, especially the devotees of
the Blessed Virgin Mary welcomed the MRTCG or the new and monastic
apocalyptic Marian Movement, as a new Catholic religious Order, which was
also a moral equivalent and religious parallel of the traditional Balokole
Movement within the Anglican Church.
Consequently, the Marian Moral Reform Movement, which existed within
the Catholic Church, sounded as a parallel moral reform and spiritual renewal
Balokole Movement within the Anglican Church which had now been adapted by
Mwerinde and Joseph Kibwetere to the Catholic Church. The new apocalyptic
Marian moral reform Movement appealed to some devout and fundamentalist
Christians beyond the Catholic Church.14 The Catholic devotees of Mary, the
 God’s Warriors, Liberation Movements & Mary’s Martyrs 7

Balokole and other pious Christians eagerly welcomed it.

However, the Catholic Church hierarchy denounced the MRTCG as an
irregular religious Order that was founded within the Catholic Church without
the bishop’s or the Pope’s canonical authorization and license to function within
the Catholic Church. The Mbarara Diocese bishops also accused the Movement
leaders of falsely claiming to have seen some visions of the Blessed Virgin Mary,
and teaching extreme and dangerous moral practices and doomsday prophecies
15
for the imminent end of the world.
Nevertheless, the Movement leaders still claimed that God had given them
the necessary saving grace and power to exorcize the demonic forces of the Devil
in the world, to heal the possessed, or cure HIV/AIDS, and by faith and healing
prayers, provide cures for the faithful, despite the fact that the Movement
members were still dying from HIV/AIDS, irrespective of the healing prayers of
their Movement leaders. The Movement leaders insisted that their prayers
worked but the sick people lacked enough faith to be healed by God or possessed
some secret sins which had not been fully repented and atoned for. Because of
overwhelming unmet medical and mental needs, the MRTCG leaders were able
to appeal to many devout Catholics, especially the people, who had great needs
for consolation and healing.
These kinds of marginalized and needy people found it nearly irresistible not
to positively respond and join the Marian Movement. They were mainly attracted
to the Marian Movement by the leaders’ impressive testimonies of heavenly
visions, Marian apparitions. Above all, the people were impressed by the Marian
Movement leaders’ supernatural religious claims to possess divine power and the
promises to heal the sick through prayers and exorcisms. They also won the
admiration of many devout and the rural superstitious Catholics. This was
accomplished by the Marian Movement leaders’ convincing claims to
prophesize, predict future events and to cure the dreaded HIV/AIDS. The Marian
Movement leaders convinced many rural Catholics that they were able to
perform these miracles by faith, exorcism and special prayers through God-given
special gifts and powers of supernatural therapy or to effect cures in the holy of
power of the holy Name of the Trinity: “God the Father,” “the Blessed Virgin
Mary” and “Jesus Christ.”
Ultimately, East Africa was an African region, which had been greatly
devastated and traumatized by violence, poverty, civil and genocidal wars,
diseases and death. Therefore, the people in this region were physically,
politically, morally and economically traumatize. As a result, they were
spiritually and culturally open to God=s intervention and healing of the deep
collective grief, economic and social disruption, as well as deep psychological
trauma and mental wounds. Healing and exorcisms provided psychotherapy and
grief-counseling. These services were especially important and necessary due to
8 Religion, Politics & Cults in East Africa

the prevalent cases of post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and severe
depression associated with brutal ethnic conflicts, genocide, destructive wars in
Uganda, and the neighboring countries of Sudan, Rwanda, Burundi and the
Republic of the Congo.16
In the absence of psychiatrists, religious leaders, such as priests, ministers,
prophets, traditional doctors and faith healers (Bafumu/Waganga) became the
main providers of counseling, therapy and supernatural agents of God=s
exorcism, healing and miraculous cures. The MRTCG leaders claimed to possess
supernatural powers to perform exorcisms to get rid of the demonic forces or
oppressive evil spirits, and to heal all diseases, including the deadly HIV/AIDS
and malaria, through faith and the laying on of hands. These claims of apostolic,
charismatic and divine spiritual gifts and healing practices were enthusiastically
welcomed by many Christians, as the true new apocalyptic forms of God=s
providence, divine intervention, healing and salvation in the world.

3. Kanungu as God’s New Chosen Center of Apocalyptic Revelation

And Mary’s Salvation in the World
The Kanungu site of the horrific Movement church inferno on March 17, 2000,
was chosen because it was a refuge from persecution in Mbarara Catholic
Diocese. Kanungu was located in Kabale Diocese, where the more tolerant and
liberal Bishop Robert Gay17 left the MRTCG leaders and their followers to
preach, live and practice their apocalyptic teachings and experiment with living a
monastic ascetic life, in peace.18
In addition, Mwerinde=s father was another Marian devotee who left all his
farm land near Kanungu to her for the purposes of supporting and promoting her
divine call to serve as Mary=s embodiment (Ekyombeko), voice (Iraka), visionary
(Kareebi) and representation (Entumwa) in the world (Omunsi egyi), beginning
with her family. Mwerinde’s first convert was been Ursula Komuhangi, her
sister. That event had made a great impression on Paul Kashaku, their father,
who was a retired Catholic catechist at the neighboring Makiro Parish Church.
He, too, had seen a vision of the Blessed Virgin Mary. As a devout Catholic and
zealous devotee of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Kashaku became a great supporter
of his favorite daughter=s claims of heavenly and Marian visions, divine
commissioning to God’s redemptive mission and a moral crusade in the world, to
19
save both a fallen and corrupt Church and society.
The Kanungu site was also remote and rural, and therefore, it was considered
ideal as a farming place that would support hundreds of the Movement=s
members that were housed in dormitories on the site. Because of the remote
location of the site, it was also considered as an ideal place to isolate and control
the Marian Movement members. The Marian Movement leaders censored the
outside information that was presented to the Marian Movement members. This
 God’s Warriors, Liberation Movements & Mary’s Martyrs 9

was partly in order to protect them from outside temptations and sins.
As a result of censorship and isolation of the Marian Movement members,
whose main monastic community campus was located in a remote rural area near
the border with the war-torn Democratic Republic of the Congo and Rwanda,
where brutal genocide had occurred, it seemed that evil completely prevailed in
God’s world. Consequently, within this state of angst and ignorance, it became
very easy for the Marian Movement leaders to convince the isolated people,
especially in the remote African rural areas that the world was, indeed, so
irredeemably evil and violent, and was therefore, coming to an imminent
catastrophic or fiery end, as a result of God’s righteous judgment and
punishment. The MRTCG or the Marian Movement leaders attributed this
apocalyptic disaster to be a result of human moral evils, and rampant sins,
especially those of avarice, sexual immorality, homosexuality, corruption,
violence and wars, partly because many local people were victims of many of
these evils and wanted to be delivered from them, by God or God’s messiah
(Lakwena) or liberator.
Accordingly, it was easy for these marginalized and oppressed people to
believe that God would punish the corrupt world and sinners, by destroying them
in God’s catastrophic fire as his divine retribution for disobedience, and evils or
sins of: corruption, greed, violence, homosexuality, rape and other forms of
moral decadence, which the Marian Movement moral crusaders strongly
denounced and preached against. Hellfire had been traditionally preached by the
Western Christian missionaries as God’s judgment and punishment, therefore,
the Marian Movement leaders, only embellished it with vivid images from
Dante’s Inferno. These images of fire were meant to scare sinners into
repentance out of dread and fear of God’s impending judgment and painful
punishment in hell-fire.
The urgency for repentance led to the Marian Movement leaders’ ill-advised
and tragic device of preaching the frightening doomsday prophecies and making
scaring apocalyptic predictions for the end of the corrupt era in God’s purifying
fire, at the end the Second Millennium. This preaching device backfired, because
doomsday prophecies and predictions for the end of the world became public
obsessions, which effectively overshadowed, marginalized and even negated
Keledonia Mwerinde’s Marian Movement’s original real noble religious and
moral objectives to preach repentance and implement moral reformation in both
the Church and the State or the world as a whole.
As a result, these doomsday predictions became a self-fulfilling reality for
the Marian Movement members, in March, 2000, when they underwent self-
sacrificial ritual of atonement and martyrdom. These sacramental rituals were
performed, in hope of becoming God’s obedient martyrs and holy saints. They
were also performed as the holy path and supernatural means to liberate the soul
10 Religion, Politics & Cults in East Africa

from the bodies and to empower it to ascend into heaven, for the attainment of
God’s salvation, eternal life, and everlasting happiness in the fellowship of God
and the saints. Later, this code of silence made it easy for the Marian Movement
leaders to plan and kill their followers in total secrecy, and then, bury them
20
secretly without arousing the suspicion of neighbors or the local police. The
Kanungu MRTCG headquarters= site, where some of these Marian Movement’s
final martyrdoms occurred was described, in 2000,21 by the Makerere University
investigation group following the Movement=s tragic deaths as follows:
(A) Two churches: The old church where members perished and the new church had
just been completed before the fire.
(B) A number of residential houses:
! One fairly modern house for the leaders.
! 2 large dormitories; one for male and another for female members.
! 2 visitors= houses with a reception room.
! Kitchens and stores.
! A full-fledged primary school (with 7 classrooms).22
! A school dormitory and stores.
! An unfinished shrine to the Blessed Virgin Mary at the entrance of the camp. 23
(C) A large compound with a cemetery in the middle of the site. Another cemetery is
located on an adjacent hill.
(D) Fields where potatoes, bananas, pineapples and sugar-canes were grown.
(E) A dairy farm which became a model farm of about 30 Friesian cows.
(F) A poultry project.
From an estimation, the camp could host and cater for up to 300 people at anyone
time.24 However, the exact number that permanently stayed on this site cannot be
ascertained since members were constantly being transferred from one site to another.25

The Report continues to describe the Movement headquarters campus and its
architectural design as follows:
The construction of the movement=s headquarters at Kanungu is in an irregular pattern.
Houses are built close to each other and face in all directions. Both the old and new
churches are built close to the dwelling houses. Most houses are built of mud and
wattle. The rooms in some buildings are tiny. In one main house at the site, latrines are
attached. There is no flowing water at the site. The kitchen, stores and school, are all
part of this complex. The main residential house looks decent with over twenty small
rooms. It is the same house where bodies were later discovered in pits originally meant
26
to serve as pit latrines.

In their report, the Makerere University research team=s investigation also

answered the important question regarding the selection of the remote Kanungu
site in Kabale Catholic Diocese as the Marian Movement=s new headquarters and
center of operations. Kanungu was chosen, despite its location in a remote rural
area with little access, either by road or telephone, and lacking in the essential
facilities of electricity, clean piped water for cooking and bathing, or for
27
plumbing and sewer systems. The answer indicates that the Marian Movement
 God’s Warriors, Liberation Movements & Mary’s Martyrs 11

wanted privacy, peace and quiet. However, the team failed to fully realize, or
emphasize sufficiently, that the Kanungu site was the necessary refuge and
hiding place from the apparent persecution by both Bishops John Baptist Kakubi
and Paul Bakyenga of Mbarara Catholic Diocese.28 Nevertheless, the team made
some important observations concerning the selection of the Kanungu site.
The Makerere University Research Team asked and answered some
important questions, like: “Why was Kanungu Chosen for the [Movement]
Headquarters?” and “Why did the Marian devotees ritually kill themselves?”
There are several reasons why the Movement leaders may have chosen Kanungu
as their camping site. The following reasons or considerations deserve to be
mentioned or analyzed:
1. The Marian Movement leaders obtained a significant gift in the form of a
large piece of land from Credonia=s [Keledonia=s] father, which was intended to
support their work. So they took this opportunity to move away from Mbarara
and Ntungamo sites, which had become both too small and hostile to them and
their religious activities and doctrines.
2. The group had been met with strong resistance from the Mbarara Catholic
bishops and the local authorities in their previous areas of operation, as well as
from the families where the Marian Movement members had gathered and
camped, including Kibwetere=s own family.
3. The remoteness of the place provided ample security where they [The
Marian Movement leaders] would carry on their activities free from public
interference.
4. Local people of the area, as well as authorities, were not hostile to them.
They were hospitable. However, some kind of resistance would develop later
when people started suspecting the group after hearing reports of its having been
resisted in Mbarara.
5. The site seemed to be conducive to a solitary life and prayer which they
preferred. It is very isolated and generally quiet and the only way of knowing
what was taking place there was to actually visit the place. Located about two to
three kilometers from Kanungu Trading Centre, it was only accessible by a
narrow road which was constructed by the Movement members once they settled
at the site. The road crosses a valley and there is a small bridge made of timber
29
and rocks. The place resembled a monastery.
The new Kanungu site for the Marian headquarters and cloistered monastic
community was very remote and difficult to travel to from Mbarara. It was
isolated and ideal for secrecy, religious freedom, religious excesses, despair, and
therefore, conducive to the Marian Movement members’ complete obedience
and conviction that their leaders were telling them the truth when they claimed
that the Blessed Virgin Mary had appeared to them and told them that the world
was going to end at the close of 1999, in God=s catastrophic and consuming holy
12 Religion, Politics & Cults in East Africa

fire, or “hellfire,” as punishment for moral evil, rebellion and sin against God.30
The Marian Movement=s headquarters in Kanungu were also both
theologically and symbolically named as: “Ishayuriro Rya Maria” (The Place of
Deliverance/Salvation by the Blessed Virgin Mary).31 Kanungu was also
considered as the global center of God=s supernatural activities of revelation,
grace, healing, holy pilgrimage and redemption. On March 17, 2000, it also
became the venue for the Marian Movement members’ final activities of holy
32
self-sacrifices, self-martyrdom, death, cremation within the church inferno, and
fulfillment of the Marian Movement members= expected ascension into heaven in
AMary=s flames of fire@ with the assistance of God=s Holy Spirit. 33
The other important Marian Movement branch substations and camp centers
in Uganda included: the Kanungu and Katojo Trading Centres in Kanungu
District (Kigezi), Rutooma, Rubirizi and Rugazi in Bushenyi District (Ankole),
Kamukuzi in Mbarara District (Ankole), Kyaka in Kabarole District (Toro) and
Buziga in Kampala District (Buganda). Based on these major locations of the
Movement=s centers, it is clear that most of the Marian Movement members and
victims were also predominantly the people, who came from these areas and
regions, in which the Marian Movement centers were located.34
Therefore, the Marian Movement members were mainly composed of
Banyankole, followed by the Batoro, the Banyakigezi (Bakiga, Bahororo and
35
Banyarwanda ) and the Baganda. There were also many Banyarwanda, Basoga,
the Congolese, and some other ethnic groups that were less heavily represented
in the Marian Movement=s membership. 36
Nevertheless, the names of some of the Movement victims also clearly
indicate that the majority of the members and martyrs of this tragic Apocalyptic
Marian Movement were pious Catholic women, who were the traditional
devotees of Mary, and their innocent children. Ultimately, although the MRTCG
was founded locally in Uganda in 1989 to become God=s universal,37
apocalyptic, and inclusive messianic agency of redemption for all the people in
the world, irrespective of race and religious tradition,38 by 2000, the majority of
these Marian Movement members and Christian martyrs came from regions of
39
Ankole, Kigezi and Toro in Southern and Western Uganda.

4. Problems of Field Data and Interpretation

As a detailed case study of the African messianic and liberation movements, this
book will both provide and present the comprehensive socioeconomic, historical,
religious, theological, philosophical, cultural and political contexts in which The
Movement for the Restoration of the Ten Commandments of God emerged, and
thrived, especially poverty, HIV/AIDS pandemic, corruption, political
repression, violence and wars. It will attempt to provide the religious and
theological reasons why the Marian Movement leaders, finally, committed the
 God’s Warriors, Liberation Movements & Mary’s Martyrs 13

tragic acts of ritual killings of their most loyal followers, as acts of holy
self-sacrifices and martyrdoms.
In reality, these gruesome ritual mass murders were perpetrated in order to
martyr the Marian Movement members based on Fr. Dominic Kataribabo’s
radical Catholic theology of self-sacrificial atonement to God and salvation. Fr.
Kataribabo conceived of these Marian martyrdoms as the holy means to liberate
and save the Marian devotees from a hostile and perishing world. Fr. Kataribabo
sought to martyr and thereby, to transform the faithful Catholic Marian devotees
into angel-like spiritual beings. He wanted to transform them into saints, who
would spiritually ascend to heaven in glory, to inherit God’s salvation and gain
the eternal life of blessedness or beatitude, happiness and peace.

A. Problems of Secrecy, Codes of Silence and Tragedy

New religious movements and cults are often very secretive in order to hide their
unusual activities from the public or government officials’ scrutiny. In some
extreme cases, like that of the Mau Mau in Kenya, some paranoid leaders of
secretive movements may require their members to take oaths of secrecy and
silence. In the African traditional religions, there are also secretive cults and
secret societies whose members take ritual oaths of secrecy and vows of silence
about their activities in the movement or cult, as part of their initiation. These
practices can lead to tragedy as in cases of human sacrifice, ritual rapes of
virgins, political assassinations and murders of their opponents. Some of these
cultic and religious practices exist in many parts of Africa today. This includes
Uganda, where child-sacrifice in central Uganda, accounts for many kidnapping
and ritual murders of children, for purposes of atonement to some traditional
gods and God, in both religious faith and hope of miraculously acquiring divine
blessings in the locally desired form of some riches.40
Many founding religious cult leaders and other secretive religious
movements generally tend to become charismatic, totalitarian, suspicious of
outsiders and paranoid. These cult-like leaders tend to distrust the public media,
newspaper reporters, politicians, police and researchers. These religious leaders
generally seek to impose total censorship on news and information coming from
outside into their religiously, socioeconomically controlled and socially isolated
communities. The Marian Movement leaders were misleadingly described by the
mass media in Uganda, in the above manner.
In these cult-like religious movements and exclusive religious communities,
such as the Rev. Jim Jones= Peoples= Temple, in Jonestown, in Guyana; and
David Koresh=s Branch Davidian Community, in Waco, Texas, the founding
religious leaders had censured external news and information coming into their
physically and socially isolated utopian and apocalyptic religious communities.
The leaders also restricted the entry of external visitors on the movements’
14 Religion, Politics & Cults in East Africa

campuses. The movement and cult leaders also rarely permitted the members of
their respective movements from visiting their families or friends back home.
These observations were also true for the Marian Movement. This is one of the
main reasons why some observers and the public media reporters mistook the
Marian Movement for another dangerous religious cult.
These new religious movements and cult leaders’ activities were designed to
isolate the members of the movements and cults from the supposedly corrupting
outside world and its supposed evil cultures, and society with its corrupting
influences and temptations. This complete self-segregation, isolation from the
world and censorship of the cult and new religious movements made it easier for
the respective religious leaders to control and brainwash their isolated and co-
dependent followers. In this kind of set-up, the movement and cult leaders
gained the status of infallible and God-like attributes among their followers.
In the case of the ancient Christians, Jesus was hailed by his Jewish disciples
as their promised Messiah (Christ), and later, the polytheistic Gentiles
worshipped him as the Son of God, in the same way in which the Greek and
Roman pagans had worshipped their leaders, especially the Emperors as either
gods or Sons of God. For the Greeks, Zeus was believed to transform and
disguise himself, in order to engage in sexual intercourse with human women
and even to reproduce with them, such as Heracles. They believed that it was
the same with God the Father and Jesus as his Son.
New religious movement leaders promote the absolute reliability of faith and
nurture deep suspicion of reason, and secular education as the evil agencies of
the demonic forces of temptations, doubt and disbelief or atheism. In many cases
of cults and new religious movement, such as The People’s Temple, HSM, LRA,
and the MRTCG, the members were both spiritually and mentally controlled by
their leaders. These people were conditioned and mentally programmed, or
oriented into both believing and accepting whatever their religious leaders and
prophets taught them, as God=s revealed new apocalyptic truths, and divine
instructions for living a holy life that is pleasing to God. Thus, the religious or
cult leaders gained the seemingly divine or infallible power over their followers.
In some cases, this power to control of their followers led to many abuses of
their followers, such as sexual and economic exploitations. In some extreme
cases, some cult-like religious leaders, like the Rev. Jim Jones, Marshall
Applewhite, David Koresh, Mwerinde and Kibwetere, led many of their pious
followers to embrace an irrational, or religiously radical and self-sacrificial moral
path of extreme self-sacrifices, and irrational self-sacrificial deaths, as the divine
holy path leading them to the attainment of supernatural salvation in heaven.
As a result of this elaborate censorship and control of information and ideas,
the religious founders and leaders of these communes became the main sources
of their communities= information of what was supposed to be credible news
 God’s Warriors, Liberation Movements & Mary’s Martyrs 15

within the community, and from the outside world. These religious leaders,
including the Marian Movement leaders, also became God=s special apocalyptic
messiahs and special agents of supernatural revelations from God, mediation of
God=s supernatural salvation and the infallible or normative moral, religious and
socioeconomic guidance for the respective communities.
The above scenario was also true for Joseph Kibwetere and Keledonia
Mwerinde concerning The Movement for the Restoration of the Ten
Commandments of God. These religious leaders served as the infallible prophets,
Amessiahs,@ or AChrists,@ and Apopes@ for their own communities. It is also a
universal problem that in many cases, when the moral reform crusaders and
messianic liberationist movement leaders succeed and come into power, their
reforms are short-lived. These self-appointed political messiahs and moral
crusaders or reformers soon become tempted and corrupted by fame, power and
wealth. Very often, the liberators or reformers succumb to these evil temptations
and become the new perpetrators of the evils they had decried, and come into
power to redress. The oppressed cry out to God for new messiahs or liberators.
Think about the French Revolution and the Emperor Napoleon; Joseph
Stalin in Russia; Chairman Mao Tse-Tung in China; Fidel Castro in Cuba, and
41
General Idi Amin in Uganda; they all became corrupted by power. Similarly,
the Marian Movement moral crusaders, messiahs and prophets, would have also
changed and corrupted, after coming into power. They would have followed the
examples of several previous African military self-styled liberators or political
messiahs, like Bokassa, Mobutu, Gaddafi, Idi Amin, Robert Mugabe and Yoweri
Museveni. They also became negatively transformed into the very evil, corrupt
and totalitarian leaders, whom they had initially denounced and overthrown on
charges of being: corrupt, tyrannical, autocratic, oppressive and evil.
By doing so, these messianic and liberation movement leaders inadvertently
negated their own original reasons and justification for the emergence of their
movement and coming into power, or the fundamental reason for being. For
instance, that has been the case with the NRM (National Resistance Movement),
or President Yoweri Museveni=s Government. Whereas the NRM fought a long
liberation war and came into power in 1986, in order to fight political
dictatorship, electoral malpractices, and corruption, it has failed in its core moral
principles and originally stated liberation objectives. On the contrary, the NRM
Government has become the most corrupt government in Ugandan history.
The Movement for the Restoration of the Ten Commandments of God, as a
corrective moral and spiritual renewal or reformation Marian Movement within
the Catholic Church, was not given sufficient time, and the opportunities to
minister and face the real temptations of power, and needs for moral, political,
economic and pastoral compromises. The idealistic and moralistic MRTCG
would also have eventually become corrupt, like President Yoweri Museveni’s
16 Religion, Politics & Cults in East Africa

NRM, which also originally waged a utopian Marxist political crusade for moral
as well as noble democratic political reasons. Yet, the NRM became corrupted
by power after coming into political office, in 1986 and many of its original
noble ideals were discarded for being either too idealistic or irrelevant.
Similarly, if the Marian Movement moral crusaders had been given time and
an opportunity to remain at the center of the Catholic Church, the Marian
Movement would have also eventually become incorporated into the mainline
Catholic Church, or become corrupted by its members and successes or the
acquisitions of power. The Marian Movement would have followed the fate of
other new and radical religious and moral reform movements and organizations
that emerged to denounce and reform the Church, like the Balokole Movement in
East Africa, or the historical ecclesiastical reformation movements, including
Martin Luther, John Calvin, John Wesley and their various forms and traditions
of the Protestant Reformation. Ultimately, if the Catholic Church hierarchy had
welcomed the Marian Movement with great interest, it would have been an ideal
administrative position to take. This would have been a positive strategy that
would have led to the Marian Movement’s initial excitement, and after blowing
off steam, the Marian Movement would have run out of steam.
In time, the Marian moral reformation Movement would have naturally lost
its main initial driving moral force and radical extremism for moral reform. This
process would have occurred slowly as the Marian Movement leaders, being
unsalaried volunteers would have run out of funds, or would have been
completely overwhelmed with work. They would have been completely
overwhelmed by the administrative chores of running retreats, workshops,
preaching crusades and teaching missions for encouragement, and the nurturing
of spiritual renewal and the moral reformation of Catholic Church and the
society around them. It is conceivable that the ambitious Kibwetere, Fr.
Kataribabo and Mwerinde would have been eventually corrupted by their
exercise of absolute cult-like power over their followers or pride and fame.
This kind of inevitable form of eventual corruption of the Marian Movement
would have gradually occurred, in time. It would have slowly taken place as
these Marian Movement leaders attempted to please their new global Catholic
audience, rather than seeking to please God and the Blessed Virgin Mary, as
their main reason for being. They would have carried out their new moral
reformation and missionary service, or redemptive mission to the world, from
within the Catholic Church. However, the Mbarara Catholic bishops missed the
opportunity to embrace, harness and neutralize the Marian Movement leaders
and their followers. The Catholic bishops could have used them as the moral and
spiritual leaven for moral revival and re-energizing the Catholic Church and its
redemptive mission in the world. It would have functioned like the Charismatic
Movement, which also promotes faith healing by ritual prayers and exorcisms.
 God’s Warriors, Liberation Movements & Mary’s Martyrs 17

B. Problems of Dealing with Censorship and Cult-like Silence

Some cults and secretive religious or political radical movements can be
extremely hostile to the perceived intrusions or investigations by the outsiders.
They can militarily seek to protect their privacy as the tragic cases of the Rev.
Jim Jones’ People’s Temple and David Koresh’s Branch Davidians clearly
indicate. The researcher=s venture into secretive religious movements and cults
can be dangerous and tragic. The researcher can be tragically confused for a
government agent, secret police informer or police criminal investigator. As a
result, cooperation and information may be watched and hindered in his or her
work, since the potential informers are scared away, due to fear of retribution
from the respective religious or movement leaders. This was partly true in
carrying out the research for this work.
Therefore, in 1999 and 2000, I was forced to find creative ways to solve
this serious problem. The local police officers in Kanungu and Rukungiri were
reluctant to discuss the case or release documents concerning the activities of
The Movement for the Restoration of the Ten Commandments of God. Their
refusal to cooperate fully was based on the legal technicality that the case was
still under police investigation, and to release the confidential information would
be unprofessional and illegal. Furthermore, that it would jeopardize any future
investigation and prosecution of the religious leaders of the MRTCG on the
charges of criminal endangerment of children, fraud and premeditated mass
murders of their devoted religious followers. However, the police=s files on the
MRTCG and its tragic end were said to be missing.42
The field research in Kanungu, Rukungiri, Kabale, Bushenyi, Ntungamo and
Mbarara districts and Kampala, Uganda, for this book in 1999-2007 was
complicated by the fact that it dealt with some censored religious and state
information. The field research ran into trouble because there were some close
relatives of the cult victims who, did not want to cooperate, and provide needed
information about the deceased members of the Marian Movement due to fear of
the Mbarara Catholic Church hierarchy=s disapproval of the Marian Movement.
Some of informers demanded payment for their information.
However, many of them were reluctant to provide information because they
were not sure how the information would be used, or if they would be held
accountable for failure to advise their relatives not to join the MRTCG.
However, many people, including the police officials were reluctant to disclose
negative information. They claimed that they did not want the information I had
gathered to be used in a negative manner that would present Uganda, as a
backward African nation dominated by evil religious and political cults and
murderous extremist movements, like the MRTCG, HSMF43 and the LRA.44
These Ugandan patriots believed and contended that Uganda had better
things to offer to the outside world, like the tourism industry, especially when it
18 Religion, Politics & Cults in East Africa

included attracting Western tourists to come and see beautiful sceneries and the
rare mountain gorillas in Southern Uganda, rather than scaring the potential
tourists away with frightening tales of cult ritual murders and even, cannibalism.
They made it clear that they did not want my research to tarnish the good name
of Uganda, by portraying its people, as superstitious religious fanatics prone to
join cults, and blaming both the Catholic Church’s bishops and the leaders of the
Government of Uganda, especially the police that had failed to detect and
prevent the MRTCG=s tragic deaths.
On the other hand, my informers suggested that some corrupt Government
officials and police officers may have wanted a bribe before they would release
the needed information. However, since I am a law abiding citizen, a priest, and
a professor of theology and ethics, I could not in good conscience participate in
these cultural evils, or condone such corrupt practices. That ethical decision
made it more difficult to conduct research for the book, in a timely manner.
However, that was the high price for moral integrity. As such, I contend that I
have earned the necessary moral experience and right to critically analyze and
objectively comment on the moral values of both the Marian Movement leaders
and their moral crusade against corruption and moral decadence in both the
Church and State affairs in East Africa, especially in Uganda.
Unlike some foreign researchers and newspaper reporters, who do not know
the local languages and cultures and make serious errors in their research reports
and reports, I was born in Kambuga, Kanungu in Southern Uganda. Therefore, it
is very significant to note that as a researcher, I have the rare advantage of
possessing the necessary linguistic, cultural, philosophical, political historical
and anthropological tools to undertake this study. I also had also taught Fr.
Kataribabo, as one of students in African political, religious and cultural history,
at Makerere University, in the 1970s. He was already a Catholic priest.
In addition, I had the unique opportunities open to me for having some
relatives and friends, who lived in the area of the field research, and as well
within the Marian Movement itself. They were extremely helpful with the
research for this book. For instance, Mrs. Theresa Tibayungwa also knew Joseph
Kibwetere, as a family friend, and knew the Rev. Fathers Kataribabo and Joseph
Mary Kasapurari, who were some of the ordained senior Catholic priests, and the
major religious leaders of the Marian Movement. Therefore, Mrs. Tibuyungwa
had a unique understanding of the Marian Movement and its leadership.
As a result, Mrs. Tibayungwa was able to give me valuable information
concerning their social histories, and religious lives in the Church. She had also
rented her daughter=s house, in Kamukuzi, to the Marian Movement leaders.
They used it as both a women=s residence hall and a preschool for the
Movement=s children until March 17, 2000, when most of them went to
Kanungu, hoping to ascend to heaven, when they burned, in the church inferno.45
 God’s Warriors, Liberation Movements & Mary’s Martyrs 19

The survivors in Mbarara were violently evicted from the premises with the
help of the police from the Mbarara Town Council. Fortunately, no mass graves
were ever found on the site. Some of my other relatives and friends who had also
rented buildings to the MRTCG leaders for a religious branch, local membership
registry processing center and shop in Katojo Trading Centre, near Kambuga
town, also got rid of the remaining Marian Movement=s property, which the
Marian devotees had not either sold or burned, before they went to Kanungu for
the ADay of the Ascension@ to heaven.
I was able to interview these relatives concerning the daily life, activities,
beliefs and religious practices of the Movement members who lived and worked
there. It was a major recruiting center for new Movement leaders and almost
converted my sister-in-law, who was their neighbor. The Anglican lay leader and
David Kashari, a minister at Nyarugunda Anglican Parish Church, had rented to
them the Katojo house. They preached to him the need to repent of his remaining
secret sins, join them and ascend to heaven with them. He said that they were
very persuasive and nearly converted him to their Marian Movement, believing
that it was a Catholic Church equivalent of the Balokole Movement of the
Anglican Church, of which he was a committed member.
Subsequently, David Kashari was cordially invited to visit Kanungu, the
Marian Movement=s headquarters, to meet the Movement leaders. But, as a
46
Mulokole and a local religious leader, he said that he went there to debate and
discuss the matters of Mariology and doomsday prophecies and monastic
doctrines and other extreme religious practices that the Marian Movement both
preached and practiced. He was particularly interested in the Marian devotees=
apocalyptic beliefs concerning the imminent end of the world and the destruction
of the non-Marian Movement members, who were the majority of religious and
God-fearing people in the world.
As an influential Mulokole and religious leader in Katojo area, David
Kashari was very eager to find out the reasons for the Marian Movement=s
mandatory requirements for selling all their members’ possessions and donating
all the sale proceeds to the Marian Movement. Like many people in Uganda,
Kashari also considered this economic requirement for joining the Marian
Movement, as an unethical form of religious exploitation and economic fraud on
the part of the Marian Movement leaders.
Kashari was also curious about the Marian Movement’s practices of extreme
fasting, and self-sacrificial religious activities of Medieval-like monasticism. He
wanted to hear the rationale for Movement’s mandatory monastic practices of
code of holy silence, extreme fasting and celibacy for all its members, and both
the legal and religious grounds for dissolutions of existing marriages.
Like most Anglicans and other Protestants, Kashari believed that mandatory
celibacy was erroneous moral obligation, since God had created Adam and Eve
20 Religion, Politics & Cults in East Africa

and wedded them to bear children and fill the Earth. He questioned their practice
of selling their property and handing over all the money to the Movement=s
leaders without saving some money for the education of the children, and the
strange teaching concerning the imminent end of the world and people perishing
unless they were in the AObwato bwa Ruhanga bw=Okujunwa@ (God=s Ark of
Salvation), which they explained to him was the Movement.
However, the new and larger church building in Kanungu, which they were
still in the process of building, was simply a symbolical and physical
representation of Noah=s Ark of Salvation. In the same way Noah built an Ark in
the dry desert, the Marian Movement leaders also symbolically built a Marian
holiness Movement as a symbol for God’s salvation, in the middle of the African
continent.47 But the Ark of Salvation was for the redemption of the entire world.
To this end, I very carefully interviewed many relatives of the religious
victims of The Movement for the Restoration of the Ten Commandments of God,
the local police, government leaders and most important of all, I interviewed
many religious leaders in Uganda. These religious leaders include: priests,
bishops, archbishops and the Cardinal Emmanuel Wamala, the former
Archbishop of Kampala Catholic Archdiocese and Head of the Catholic Church
in Uganda. It became very clear that the Marian Movement leaders built their
church building in Kanungu, as a mere symbol for God’s salvation. This is the
case despite the fact that they often metaphorically referred to it as the “Ark of
Salvation” (Obwato bw’Okujunwa).
The interviews of bishops, priests, relatives, friends, and neighbors of the
Marian Movement members were conducted over a period of four years (2000-
2004), in order to learn how the main leaders of the Church viewed The
Movement for the Restoration of the Ten Commandments of God, and what they
did in order to warn both their followers and the government officials about it.
For instance, Bishop John Ntegyereize, the Anglican Diocesan Bishop of
Kinkizi, whose headquarters were located at Nyakatare, about three miles from
the Marian Movement=s headquarters, was involved in a land dispute with the
Marian Movement leaders.
Some of the Church land shared a common land border in Kanungu with the
Movement=s headquarters. The land dispute concerning the dividing line of the
property was difficult to resolve because of the code of silence and insistence on
written communication between the two parties.48 As a result, Bishop
Ntegyereize became biased against the theology and activities of the Marian
Movement because he had negatively perceived the Marian Movement to be a
dangerous religious organization. Subsequently, he had warned his congregation
members not to join or associate with it. Bishop Ntegyereize had condemned its
doomsday teachings, and apocalyptic prophesies concerning the end of the world
at midnight on December 31, 1999, or in the morning of January 1, 2000, to be
Exploring the Variety of Random
Documents with Different Content
 that contributions paid to the plan have been at least equal
to those required under the regulation and that the plan and
investments have been administered in accordance with the act and
regulation. If an audit procedure is to be required, there must first
be an obligation placed on the onployer to prepare financial
statements. The statements required appear to the Cotimission to be
as follows: 1. Statement of the Financial Continuity of the Pension
Fund In its simplest form this \sould require: a) opening balance of
assets held under the plan provisions; b) receipts for the year,
showing separately the amounts paid in by plan members, the
amounts paid by the employer for normal contributions, and the
amounts paid by the employer for special payments, and investment
incone; c) disbursements for the year; d) closing balance of assets
held under the plan provisions. 2. Statement of the Financial Position
of the Pension F\ind In its simplest form this would require: a)
closing balance sheet for the fund, including at least a summary of
investments by class and showing both their book and market
values; b) a notation of any unfunded actuarial liabilities as reported
by the latest actuarial valuation for the plan and including a
statement of the amount of special payments ( if any) made since
the end of the period of the actuarial valuation. These statements
should be prepared by the employer and approved by the directors
of an onployer conpany or the owner or partners of a firm. The
statements will serve three functions: to bring the pension plan to
the anployer's specific attention; to provide the statements
necessary for disclosure to snployees; to provide the statements on
v^ich the audit can be performed. 20
 Frequency of Audits It is highly desirable that the pension
plan audit be performed at the same time as the regular company
audit (where one is done), not sinply for reasons of convenience but
in order to facilitate the reconciliation of pension data with relevant
payroll and other information in the employer's possession. We
reconmend that reports acccnpanied by the certificate of a chartered
accountant be required as follows: Plan Audit - At least every three
years for all plans including insured plans, and except for multi-
employer plans, preferably to coincide with the period of the triennial
actuarial evaluation. Multi-employer plans should have a plan audit
annually. Fund Audit - Annually for all plans; with qualified or limited
audits where plan assets are held by an insurance company or a
trust conpany, as discussed below. While the auditor would be
verifying the physical existence of the fund assets annually, the
report on the plan audit done every three years would require a
certificate of the auditor that the investments over the three-year
period conplied with the requirements of the Pension Benefits Act.
One wDuld expect that the auditor wDuld perform some of the work
required for this certificate more often than at the end of three
years. The commission should also be given the specific authority to
require audits more frequently, and to order an independent audit of
the plan, the fund, or both, should circumstances warrant. The
Commission appreciates the expense involved in compulsory audits.
However against this must be remembered the size of the funds, the
ccnplexity of the plans, the importance to the individual of what in
many cases is his or her largest "asset" in a lifetime, and the risks of
poor record-keeping and accounting, fraud, and conversion of
monies. It should be noted that this Commission made inquiries of
police authorities at federal, provincial, and local levels as to any
reported frauds or losses from pension plans and was advised that
there were none cf\ record. While past experience has been
satisfactory, at least CXI the surface, in the Conmission's view this is
not a valid reason for delaying audit requirements. Quebec already
requires the annual filing of an audited statement for a pension
fund, and the federal Pension Benefits Standards Act requires a
similar statement for the pension plan assets at least every three
years. 21
 Auditing Standards Certain tiasic rules for plan auditing
should be set out in the regulations: primarily the filing
requirements, the minimum financial data to be reported, and
authority for the Pension Conmission to require additional
information or clarification. Otherwise we would expect professional
standards to be applied by the auditor in determining the method of
examination. The necessary guidelines for pension auditing should
be prepared, we suggest, in a manner acceptable to the Pension
Canmission. In the event of any undue delay in working out suitable
professional guidelines, or if differences in approach between
professional bodies (e.g., accountants and actuaries) cannot be
reconciled, the Pension Canmission should be required to issue and
enforce a set of auditing standards. Qualified or Limited Audits Audit
requirements in general must be directed towards a full and accurate
disclosure of plan cperations. The scope of the auditor's task may
reasonably be reduced, however, to the extent tiiat certain phases of
plan cperation are adequately covered by audit procedures and
reports of a financial institution. Only when those external reports
can be related in a reliable way to the particular plan however,
should the plan auditor omit any step in his or her detailed
examination. Examples are: Insured or partly insured plan: Where
an insurance company underwrites all or some of the plan benefits,
the insured portion of the plan may be audited by verifying that
premiums have been paid according to the contract with the insurer,
and that all monies payable under the plan but not applied under the
insurance contract are properly accounted for. Normal auditing
requirements will apply to all other monies and transactions,
including those relating to a non-insured arrangement with an
insurance company (e.g., deposit administration, segregated fund).
Pooled investment funds: Where pension monies are invested in a
pooled investment fund operated by a corporate trustee (including
insurance companies, mutual funds, etc.) and providing its own
audited statements, the plan auditor will be entitled to rely on those
statements, but should verify that payments into and from such
pooled fund on behalf of the plan have been made in accordance
with the tenns of the plan and the investment management
agreement. Different investment vehicles: In the case of a plan
whose funds are invested through two or more carriers or
investment managers, the auditor will be expected to verify that the
allocation of monies to the respective investment vehicles has been
properly authorized . 22
 Eligible Investments As noted previously, the present
regulation requires the employer to certify annually that plan
investments comply with the regulation. Apart from that general
declaration and any relevant comments in the triennial valuation
report, no portfolio information is normally available to the Pension
Commission. Occasions for requesting particulars of fund
investments presumably are few - mainly cases of plan termination
or instances wliere valuation assumptions are questioned. Our
auditing proposal should answer the obvious question regarding the
adequacy of investment supervision under the present regulation
and canmission practice. A regular audit will not only confirm that
the pension plan is managed according to proper accounting
practices, but also will serve as a check on canpliance with the
investment rules. Consumer Role The reconmendations in Chapters
8, 9, 11, and 12 are consistent with the consumer approach. The
recommendations envisage an expanded role for the Pension
Canmission of Ontario in the following areas: Rights on termination
of employment - supervision by the Pension Canmission of Ontario
of tiie valuation of the accrued pension at the date of termination,
including the setting of a range of interest rates for valuation
purposes; Funding - establishment of guidelines by the Pension
Cormiission of Ontario for actuarial assumptions, methods, and
valuations, to exercise some external control on the practices of the
actuarial profession related to pension plans; Integration -
establishment of criteria which will ensure an equitable integration of
employment pension plans with government programs, without
denying the right to integration; PURS - assessment of provisions in
employment pension plans to permit opting out of PURS on the
assurance that equal benefits are being protected; Plan termination -
intervention by the Pension Commission of Ontario on behalf of plan
members where employees' contributions have been deducted but
not remitted by the employer to the trustee, and for onployer
contributions due but not made. As redefined, the commission's role
should put nxjre emphasis on assistance to the individual. As now
constituted, the act requires that plans be administered in
accordance with the act and regulations (section 10(1) (c)) but
otherwise makes no provision for the pension ccmmission to inform
and assist individuals in ascertaining and ensuring 23
 their rights under registered pension plans. In practice, as
noted previously, the staff of the conmission acts on request to
investigate individual problems concerning conpliance with the act;
but these investigations are necessarily informal and, failing an
outright violation of the act or regulations, may result in nothing
more than advice to the plan member that he or she has possible
grounds for civil action against the plan sponsor. It is the contention
of this Commission that the act should be amended to the extent
necessary to require the pension commission to intervene where
appropriate on behalf of an employee or group of employees, in
cases of bankruptcy or insolvency, v^ere their rights would appear
to be affected by actions of the onployer, trustee, or administrator of
v^ich the individual may have no knowledge or opportunity to
control; and in other cases where pension entitlements are in
dispute. The conmission should be given both fact-finding and
enforcement powers in respect of all provisions of a pension plan,
and not only those provisions subject to express statutory
requirements. As already noted, the existence of an act regulating
the way in which benefits are to be credited, the maintenance of
solvency and investment policies connotes more than a simple
concern with the formal provisions of pension documents and
periodic reports. The intent of the act can be fully carried out only if
its administration is designed to respond to the problems of the
individual plan member. In other words, this Commission is
proposing that the Pension Benefits Act be redesigned and
administered to a greater extent as consumer legislation, and that its
procedures and staff be adjusted as required to carry out the
functions of a consumer protection law. The Commission therefore
recoranends that the Pension Benefits Act be amended to expand
the role of the Pension Commission of Ontario fron a regulatory body
alone to a body designed to inform and assist individuals in
enforcing their rights to pension benefits in employer pension plans,
and for that purpose the conmission be given power a) to intervene
with the employer on behalf of a plan member or a class of plan
members, including active, retired, or terminated memfciers and
their beneficiaries, and to take legal proceedings on behalf of such
individual or class in the event of the bankruptcy or insolvency of the
plan sponsor which adversely affects the pension plan for events
prior to the date of such bankruptcy or insolvency, b) to arbitrate
disputes between an employer and an individual employee or class
of employees as to entitlements under a pension plan. With a
revised role it will be necessary for the pension commission to adopt
new procedures, not only for investigating individual 24
 conplaints but for mediating and, where necessary, hearing
evidence and argument concerning disputed claims. It is essential
that the ccmmission give careful thought to the fonn of such
procedures and that it be given the resources appropriate to what
must be regarded as a quasi-judicial role. We anticipate on the basis
of past experience that most individual problems will lend
themselves to a more informal resolution; but preparation should be
made for tlie occasional exception, which must be handled botli fairly
and expeditiously. Central Pension Agency There are two distinct
functions that could be performed by a central pension cogency, and
it is important that tJieso two functions be distinguished: - First, it
could be empowered to act as a trustee for tiie purpose (as
presently stated in sec. 16) of "receiving, holding and disbursing
pension benefit credits under this Act." - Second, it could cperate as
a registry for the recording of all pension credits as determined on
termination of employment or retiraTient. A need for some type of
transfer machinery was recognized in Part II of the original act v*iich
permitted establishment of a Central Pension Agency; and in section
16 of the present act, referring only to "an agency" but otherwise
similar in intent. (26) Evidently because the notion of a central
agency was originally associated with the mandatory "standard plan"
(dropped from the act in 1964), section 16 has not been
implemented. Initially, the frequency of small vested entitlements
resulting from application of the 45 and 10 rule may indeed have
been too slight to warrant establisfiment of an agency whose sole
function would have been to receive transfers if permitted by
employers and requested by anployees. It is impossible, of course,
to guess how much the demand might have increased as the
number of vested terminations increased and as plan wind-ups
raised the necessity of arranging for transfers of liabilities and assets
from ongoing plans to insurers of deferred benefits. The opposition
to such an agency seems to lie in a general dislike for mDre
government intervention; but one should also recognize that such an
agency would benefit terminated and retired employees and not the
active plan members witli whom tiie employers ' interest lies. In the
beginning the Commission's concern lay with the establishment of a
government agency to facilitate the operation of PURS. As noted in
Chapter 12, permitting an employee to designate a financial
intermediary for tlie investment of contributions presupposes some
government regulation to ensure fair investment procedures and fee
structures. The Commission therefore envisaged an Ontario
government agency \\hich would offer an alternative investment
netlium to individual participants. Ihe same agency might perform
tlie function of receiving 25
 and allocating contributions under PURS if that function is
not carried out through the administrative inachinery of the Canada
Pension Plan. The reconmendations for improved rights of transfer at
the employee's cption on termination also create the need for some
alternative repository to v^ich the value of accrued benefits can be
transferred. Failure to find an acceptable method of calculating the
value of pension credits at the time of transfer to or frcm the central
agency has thus far been a deterrent to utilizing section 16 of the
act, and therefore an ctostacle to the encouragement of genuine
portability. With implementation of our recoimendations for a
uniform approach to the valuation of vested pensions this obstacle
will be removed, and it will become possible to facilitate or require
transfers of pension credits as the circumstances dictate. It should
be stressed that PURS amplifies the need for a government agency;
but with expanded transfer rights the need exists and should be net
v^ether or not a mandatory plan is installed. Once the need for an
agency to support transfer rights is established, it wDuld seem
reasonable for such a body to assume the second function of a
central pension agency. The recording function is important for the
protection of the rights of the individual. Perhaps the best statement
of how deficiencies in the record-keeping process can result in a loss
of rights can be generalized by a paraphrase of part of Brief 394.
"TWO years ago I learned by accident that in 1975 my pension had
been transferred to another trust company. When seeking
confirmation fron my anployer it first denied then later admitted that
the transfer had indeed taken place. I vras never officially informed
of this change. "Neither was I told that subsequent to my departure
my employer company went out of existence or that the parent
changed its corporate name. Yet, I consider all this information very
relevant to my being able to track down iry pension v\hen the time
cones in 1998. There will undoubtedly be further changes in the
years ahead. The head office of the company will likely be relocated.
The administration of m/ pension may easily be moved in the next
20 years or so to yet another financial institution. Will I be notified of
such developments?" The brief v^ent on to suggest that onployers
should be required to notify all former employees with pension rights
of changes such as those which had taken place in his case. In the
Commission's opinion this approach would be difficult and not very
effective; but the Commission acknowledges there is a very real
problem involving in particular the rights to a pension of mobile
employees and of all beneficiaries entitled to survivor benefits. Since
a central agency of some sort will be required to facilitate any
reconmended rights on transfer, the Commission also recommends
that such an agency assume the record-keeping 26
 function necessary to record future rights under
employment pension plans. Elnployers wDuld be required to submit
the necessary data when employees terminate employment or retire;
and the agency would provide individual data on request to plan
members and former aiiployees. Where necessary, the central
agency could supply the information necessary for the Pension
Commission to enforce the claim of an individual for payment. It
would be feasible for each province to set up such a registry on its
cwn account. If Ontario's and similar registries in other provinces
were to adopt a uniform system of recording and retrieving personal
pension data, it vvould be a relatively simple matter to provide the
same services on a national basis under the terms of reciprocal
agreements within a period of, say two or three years. Such a
system would indeed enhance a type of portability right which is an
important need of the mobile anployee not only within Ontario but
across the country. REVISION OF 1HE PENSION BENEFITS ACT
Since the Pension Benefits Act came into force, January 1, 1965, it
has been amended a number of times, primarily to support the
principles established originally in the act. Quite apart from the new
role envisaged by this Conmission, it is clear that the time has come
for a general review and overhaul of the act. The following areas in
particular should be considered. It would seem logical that the
Pension Conmission itself should undertake the review and report to
the Minister with proposals for amendment of both the act and the
regulation. Multi-Enployer Plans Multi-employer plans were described
in Chapter 7 and examined in Chapter 8 as a possible method of
achieving portability. While such plans are covered by the act - in the
sense tliat they are not excluded the absence of adequate definitions
applicable to multi-employer plans makes for some ambiguities in
oonpliance with the act and regulation. The consequent problems,
whether real or potential, can and should be addressed through
specific changes in the legislation. The multi-employer plan is one in
which a number of employers contribute to a single plan covering all
onployees in an area, industry, or occupation - usually under a
collective agreement with one or more unions. Management of the
plan is by a board of trustees designated by the parties to the
agreement, with various functions delegated, as in a single-employer
plan, to a professional administrator and one or more investment
managers. The multi-employer plan is often regarded as the only
practical method of providing employment pensions, with employer
participation, for highly mobile workers in such industries as
construction, or those in firms employing only a few employees. 27
 Multi-employer plans at present serve to extend
employment pension coverage into areas of industry that would not
otherwise have easy or econonical access to mechanisms for
providing retirement income above the level of government plans. In
addition they offer a much greater degree of portability than would
have been provided if the employers involved had set up separate
plans. These obvious advantages are by no means outweighed by
certain inherent problems which were discussed in Chapter 7.
However, it is important to ensure that the members of multi-
employer plans are afforded the same degree of protection the
legislation gives to onployees in other types of plans. Thus, if it is
found that any important provision of the act is not readily
enforceable in respect of a multi-employer plan, it follows that a
special provision or provisions should be considered. One basic
ambiguity in the Pension Benefits Act seems to give rise to most of
the difficulty experienced in applying the Act to multiemployer plans.
That is, the act places all responsibility for compliance on the
"employer" - but that term as defined in the Act cannot be construed
as including a board of trustees in a multi-employer plan. Where an
individual employer under such a plan pays the required
contributions to the trustees at the appropriate times, it must be
conceded fron a practical viewpoint that all financial obligations have
then teen met that might reasonably be required by pension
legislation. Apart fron that act of conpliance the eiiployer would be
expected to forward to the trustees certain payroll data (to enable
contributions to be verified and service credits recorded) and to co-
operate in any auditing procedures. Otherwise, it is clear that the
board of trustees has full contractual responsibility for maintaining
the plan as qualified for registration. That looard, and not the
participating employers, are in a position to attend to all questions of
solvency, investment policy, disclosure, and the filing of reports with
supervisory agencies. In practice, the Pension Conmission looks to
the board of trustees for the required reports; in effect, no
participating employer is required to account for the plan provisions
or its administration. Neither the trustees nor the Pension
Commission have any interest, normally, in raising procedural
objections so long as the plan in fact ccmplies with the law in every
material respect. It cannot be assumed, however, that problems of
enforcement will not arise. If that should occur, it is essential that it
be quite clear where the legal responsibility lies for compliance with
the terms of the act and regulations. We are therefore
recommending that the term "multi-employer plan" be defined in the
act, and that responsibility be explicitly assigned to the board of
trustees for any actions not properly attributable to the participating
enployers. Where appropriate - as in sections that are equally
applicable to both single and multiemployer plans - the term "plan
sponsor" might serve to denote the individual, corporation or group
ultimately responsible for and controlling the plan. 28
 Compliance Problems Witli a vsorkable definition of multi-
employer plans it should be more feasible to provide in tlie act and
regulations for certain special problems of ccmpliance: Delinquent
Employers; If responsibility for plan solvency is assigned expressly to
the board of trustees, it will be clear that it is their responsibility to
ensure that each participating employer makes contributions as
required by the plan. But in any event tlie board has the onus of
maintaining solvency of the plan as required by the regulation. The
Pension Commission cannot be expected to function as a collection
agency, and any shortfall in plan revenues for whatever reason
should be treated in exactly the same way as in a single employer
plan. However, a participating employer is not relieved of the
obligation under the law as well as the collective agreement to remit
contributions as required. If necessary, the legislation should be
clarified so that the statutory lien recommended in Chapter 9 will be
fully enforceable against any anployer in a multi-employer plan.
Actuarial Certification: Our recotiroendations for a strengthening of
the standards for plan solvency apply equally to multi-employer
plans. In addition, the requirements dealing with actuarial
certification should be administered in such a way that the plan
actuary deals explicitly with the ability of the plan to provide the
benefits as defined in the plan, and not merely the level of
contributions agreed to by the participating employers. By the same
token, all necessary steps should be taken - including appropriate
vvording of the disclosure regulations - to make the members of
every multi-employer plan av/are that any defined benefits premised
in a pension plan can be sustained only so long as the prescribed
contributions are sufficient to ensure solvency as provided in the
regulations. V>ftiere defined benefits at a certain level are being
supported by defined contributions, there must be an unequivocal
provision for a reduction of benefits if the prescribed standard of
solvency cannot otherwise be maintained. The Pension Conmission
should not hesitate to refuse to register or to invoke the power of
deregistration where it is not satisfied that this principle is fully
reflected in the terrr.s of a particular plan, in all reports filed with the
commission, and in the disclosure of information to participating
employers and plan members. Vesting: Service Qualification:
Because of the way in which service is recorded and credited in the
typical multi-employer plan, a terminating member in some
circumstances may not qualify for statutory vesting despite having
had the requisite years of continuous employment. Plan membership
in effect is treated as a substitute for continuous service. Since the
degree of portability achieved in these plans is generally much more
favourable than 29
 would otherwise be possible, it might be assumed that a
person's years of membership are a satisfactory equivalent of
service. However, tlie revision of vesting conditions in the act
provides an opportunity to re-examine various anomalies in the
legislation. In this instance we believe there is a need in principle to
ensure that no person who would qualify for vesting on tlie basis of
continuous service is denied a deferred pension on the ground of his
or her period of plan membership. This change would not appear to
require a statutory amendment, but the Pension Conmission should
take steps to bring existing practice into line with this
recommendation. Union Pension Plans Any plan under \^ich the
employer is not required to make contributions is not required to be
filed or to qualify for registration under the act (Sec. 18(1)). This
exclusion does not apply to an employer's supplemental pension
plan such as a mechanism for voluntary additional employee
contributions. Thus, the type of plan excluded from all supervisory
requirements is one for which the employer not only has no financial
responsibility but is not the sponsor in any sense. At present only
three "employee-pay-all" plans are known to have members in
Ontario. All are union plans, established many years ago for
members employed in certain trades or crafts in Canada and the
United States, and financed entirely tlirough the regular payment of
union dues. In recent years it appears that at least some such plans
are being progressively supplanted by pensions of a more
conventional type, negotiated with QTiployers. Because of the
general exclusion of dues-paid plans fran the provisions of tlie Act,
no up-to-date information is available to the Pension Commission on
the number of Ontario members or the level of benefits provided. All
known plans of tliis type are subject to a variety of reporting and
supervisory measures under U.S. law, and furtliecraore are controlled
entirely by the union membership. As a consequence there seems to
be no compelling reason to amend the act at tliis time to cover such
dues-paid plans as now exist and have hitherto been excluded. The
Commission has considered, however, the possibility that new plans
of the employee-pay-all type might be devised, and that the
circumstances might indicate the need for some or all of the
protection afforded by the Pension Benefits Act. As matters now
stand, a new plan could function for some time before the Pension
Commission had any knowledge of its existence - and then perhaps
only through complaints relating to some failure of tiie plan to fulfil
its obligations. If such plans ought to be subject to legislative
supervision, it is plainly desirable that the necessary controls be in
place before any problems materialize. Accordingly, it is proposed
that the act be amended to confine the exclusions referred to in
section 18(1) to plans established prior to 1980. Any new plan to
vvhich the employer is not required to 30
 contribute would be subject to all the regular reporting and
registration provisions. The term "plan sponsor" - as suggested for
use in reference to multi-employer plans - might usefully be applied
to an organization which establishes and controls the operation of an
employee-pay-all pension plan. Group RRSPs These arrangements
have become increasingly popular of late, reflecting the tax
deductibility offered to RRSP contributions. They are in effect an
aggregation of individual RRSPs and therefore do not fall within the
concept of onployee-pay-all plans just discussed. The employer as
such is not sponsoring a plan into which a number of employees will
make payments but rather is providing a method of collecting and
remitting contributions to the plan of each individual. Even if the
employer pays part of the contribution from his own funds it will still
be a contribution to the plan of an individual; the anployer has no
way of withdrawing or controlling the contributions once they are
made to the plan. The Coraaission does not therefore see any need
to include these plans under the act to protect the benefit rights of
the anployee. If, however, experience shows that anployees require
such protection, the definition section of the act should be
broadened to include these plans with a view to ensuring that all
arrangements designed to deliver retirement benefits will do just
that. Representation of Plan Members The Commission received
many submissions requesting that some representation be given to
plan members on the pension committee or board which conducts
the affairs of a pension plan. The most strenuous of these
submissions came fron retired members concerned with obtaining
inflation adjustments to their pensions. How far representation
should be accorded depends on one's view of a pension - as
deferred wages or otherwise. The Commission does not see that to
require such representation for retired members would solve their
immediate problems. It would only add to administrative
requirements. The Commission does believe, however, that some
limited representation should be given active members in a
contributory plan. The Commission has not gone very far in
providing representation because it is of the opinion that such
requests cone not so much fron a desire to administer as from a
desire to be informed. If the Commission's disclosure
recommendations are implemented the desire for representation
may decrease. Ttiis then is a matter Vvhich should be reassessed
after the disclosure changes have been in operation for a reasonable
time. The Commission therefore reccmmends that the Pension
Benefits Act be amended to require for contributory pension plans
representation of the active members of the plan on the body
directing the affairs of the pension plan, by the election of not less
than one plan member to such body with full rights as a member of
the board or committee. Election 31
 of such member shall be required under a provision of the
plan in a manner acceptable to the Pension Conmission of Ontario.
Administration - Trustees A cardinal principle of the Pension Benefits
Act is that a plan registered under the act must be organized and
administered in accordance with the act. (Act, sections 19 and 20)
The thrust of the act and regulations is to place the onus on the
employer v^o establishes a plan to see that it is so administered.
The act contemplates that a plan may be administered by the
employer or by some third party; it does not however specify vtio
such a third party may be. However, administration of the plan (the
enployer's responsibility) must be distinguished fron the
administration of the fund. Section 18 of the regulation under the act
requires the funds (unless administered by a government) to be
administered by an insurance ccmpany, a corporate trustee,
individual trustees, the Government Annuities Branch or a Pension
Fund Society. No monies may be paid to the employer by the trustee
without the consent of the Pension Ccmmission. While the term
"pension plan" will include the assets held in a fund as part of the
operation of the plan, common parlance often confuses the pension
plan and the pension fund. The distinction is not clear in the
legislation; for example, section 18(2) of the regulation provides that
"no funds shall be paid out of a pension plan to an Q"aployer."
Section 16 of the regulation authorizes a transfer of a pension
benefit credit to "the administrator, insurer or trustee of another
pension plan." Revenue Canada guidelines cut across both
administrative responsibilities by providing that a plan funded
through a trust must have a designated administrator "who is
responsible for the overall operation and administration of the plan."
Clearly the question is not one of confusion among terms but rather
the effect of such confusion of terminology on the duties of the
employer and the trustee of the funds. In practice, an employer will
often appoint a plan administrator to act on the employer's behalf.
This administrator may also be the trustee of the pension fund. This
places the trustee in a difficult situation. Generally speaking, the
trustee's primary duty is towards the beneficiaries of the trust. The
trustee must show impartiality towards all the beneficiaries
regardless of personal gain. A trustee may employ agents or
advisors such as bankers, investment managers, brokers, and
lawyers, but by doing so the trustee does not avoid the ultimate
responsibility for the trust funds. The plan administrator on tlie other
hand is under an obligation to follow the instructions of tlie employer
in the administration of the plan. It is conceivable that these tvro
functions will involve conflicting duties. 32
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