Uganda has had a number of difficult times, but the March 17, 2000 mass suicide
at Kanungu was an act that greatly lowered the ranking of the country both in
the region and on the international scene.
Over 2000 believers of the Restoration of the Ten Commandments of God were
burnt to ashes. A self-styled prophet Joseph Kibwetere and others who headed
the said cult are still at large. Police investigations have never been concluded.
A few days ago I discovered Kibwetere in Tanzania's capital city - Dar.
On, October 2, when I ended my one-week tour of Bagamoyo and Dar-es-Salaam, I
decided to travel back the same way I had entered the land of the swahili.
I checked in at Ubungo Bus Terminal, a giant bus park that hundreds of bus
coaches plying the interior of Tanzania mainland as well as other countries
'tax'. Here I was set to commence a fourteen-hour 'flight' to Kenya's capital -
Nairobi and later 12 more hours to my mother- land Kampala.
I met face-to-face with one of Uganda's most wanted men in a place visited by
about 7000-10,000 people.
I was not so sure whether all Tanzanians had knowledge about the former cult
leader. But I met him in Ubungo Bus Terminal's clean toilet. I entered the
toilet to answer nature's call before I start my long journey, a second thought
told me to look up on the grey-clean wall.
"Kibetwere Spoiler Boy" was well marked on the wall. As I went on to
do nature a favour, I thought of this.
"So these Tanzanians must be our great friends". It was important to
learn that they (Tanzanians) did, and still make Kibwetere a big subject in
such a public place. On the contrary, here back home investigations have never
revealed even a single grain of truth of "spoiler boy's where-bouts.
No wonder, Tanzania played a major role in the smoking out of yet another
spoiler boy, Idi Amin in 1979.
Oh Uganda the country of wonders and miracles!