Kaziimba likens reformed church to gang of robbers
“We have been grappling with the challenge of land grabbing, but we have registered another case of church grabbing in Kumi,” Kazimba added.
John Ekure (R) of Kumi gifting Archbishop Dr Stephen Kaziimba Mugalu a book as Kumi bishop Okwi looks on during the last day of pastoral visit to Kumi on Tuesday. (1)
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_________________ Archbishop Kaziimba congratulating Kumi bishop Okwii for successfully hosting him Archbishop launching the Kumi diocese strategic plan Archbishop pose for a picture the leaders of Kumi on his last day of the visit Lay readers pose for a picture with archbishop
Archbishop Dr Stephen Kaziimba Mugalu has described the Reformed Anglican Church as a gang of robbers.
The archbishop accuses the reformed Anglican team of grabbing Church of Uganda (COU) churches and, has, therefore, vowed to take legal action against the group over its continued occupation of COU churches in Kumi diocese.
“They are not thieves; they are robbers who come during daylight. We cannot accept anybody to take our property because there are schools registered in the Ministry of Education under the foundation body with the Church of Uganda,” Kazimba says.
The prelate is now calling on the security to intervene before bloodshed, explaining that the Reform team was provoking the Anglican Christians from their churches.
Kaziimba made the remarks while appearing on Vision Group's Etop Radio on March 10, 2024.
The archbishop has been on a week-long pastoral visit to Kumi Diocese, which started on Friday last week.
“We have been grappling with the challenge of land grabbing, but we have registered another case of church grabbing in Kumi,” Kazimba added.
Origin of misunderstanding
Kumi Anglican Diocese has been embroiled in controversy, for now, four years after the COU House of Bishops cancelled the election of the Rev. Charles Okunya after it was established that he revised his year of birth from 1975 to 1970. The revision reportedly was aimed at bringing himself into the constitutional and canonical age bracket which he had not attained by 2019 when they conducted the election.
Attempts by Okunya to run to court to secure the most coveted seat in the Anglican Church failed when Justice Musa Ssekana dismissed the case.
“The plaintiff (Okunya) at the time of his nomination was not qualified to be elected a Bishop of Kumi since he had not yet made the mandatory age requirement of 45 years,'' the judge said in his ruling.
The judge noted that when Rev. Okunya wanted to stand for election as a Bishop, only three days before the election, he swore a statutory declaration to indicate that he made a mistake when he was registering for his national identity card.
“The plaintiff’s life within the Church of Uganda as clergy was premised on information he availed at the time of joining and this was categorically reflected as 23rd November 1975. This fact is not in dispute but the plaintiff now wishes to alter his date of birth by claiming that the actual date of birth earlier indicated on all his documents was a mistake or an error,” the ruling reads in part.
“The act of altering the date of birth three days to being nominated as a Bishop becomes very suspicious and it is not an innocent act by the plaintiff and I would agree with the defendant’s counsel that it was indeed fraudulent,” the judge ruled.
Three years later after the storm settled, Kumi diocese got a bishop. The Rev. Michael Okwii Esakahn was then elected by the House of Bishops as the second Bishop of Kumi Diocese. He was consecrated and enthroned as Bishop on March 6, 2022, at St Philip’s Cathedral, Ngora.
After realising that he had lost the battle, Okunya broke away from the Anglican Church to form the Reformed Anglican Church in which he is a bishop.
Okunya responds
“Those churches belong to the community and it’s the communities where those churches are who offered the land and built those churches, and if they have parted ways then there is no way he can claim that those are his churches,” Okunya said in a telephone interview.
He also denied organising people to attack the archbishop and his team, saying he had been away from the Kumi.
“But also, the approach that he is using [is wrong]. There is no way you can force yourselves where you are not wanted. The best is to have a dialogue with those people and be able to share once he gives his view and those people understand they will absorb him as a leader but imposing I think it's impossible for him,” Okunya added.
The Archbishop and his team received a rude welcome from Kanyum church where the Reformed Church blocked him from accessing the church claiming that he had no right to be in their church.
Though the issue of that church went up to court where the court ruled in favour of the Anglican Church, the Christians hurled insults at the Archbishop and Kumi bishop Eskahan.
The angry Reformed team did not fear the Police who escorted the archbishop and stood their ground to block the archbishop from entering the church.
“I think it's him (Kaziimba) who incited violence because I don’t think anybody in the Reformed Anglican church has been violent, no the people have been living in peace but I think it's him who incited violence,” Okunya said.