Rakai, Uganda - Two bodies of members of the Serulanda sect have disappeared, the commission investigating the cult in Sesamirembe Kabira Sub-county in Rakai District learnt on Thursday.
The commission, chaired by Prof. Nelson Sewankambo, learnt that two other bodies were brought in to replace those which were stolen, as indicated on a list brought to the commission by Kasiimwe Semyanjo, who looks after the house where the bodies are kept.
“What was the intention of removing some of the bodies and putting in others which were not on the list you gave us?”
Sewankambo asked and went and counted the bodies.
The house, which the sect refers to as Baloola, was also stinking, causing Sewankambo to suspect that new bodies had been brought in.
“This place is smelly. Other bodies must have been brought in,” Sewankambo said. Semyanjo, however, denied this.
Sunday Vision counted 10 bodies stored in Baloola, including the one of Marion Hudraf, which was flown in from the US in 2003 and that of George Smith Kyeyune, who also died in the US.
Other bodies were those of Jane Kamateeka, who died in 1983 and another of Mama Nazaabu, who was Serulanda chief Bambi Baaba’s wife.
Kamateeka’s body was sealed in a metallic coffin but others are in open coffins.
Semyanjo said that some people who used to go for treatment at the sect’s health centre used to eat human flesh, until he told them to stop the practice.
“It is not new that people eat human flesh,” Semyanjo said.
The Serulanda spiritual sect does not bury their dead. Besides keeping them in Baloola, others are kept on rocks over which they construct structures similar to tombs.
Semyanjo told the commission that he died for three days in 2003, but Bambi Baaba raised him. “On the third day of my death, Bambi Baaba rang from America and called my name. I then resurrected,” Semyanjo said.
Semyanjo told the commission that Bambi Baaba, who is not human, came to the world to put an end to death.
Another witness, Sebigemera Gema Ngemera Bigemero, also said that he has since 1977 died three times, resurrecting on Bambi Baaba’s command.