High stakes as Bishop Kaziimba is elected new archbishop

The House of Bishops is the top-most organ of the Anglican Church in Uganda. In public, the bishops exude holiness and eminence in their angelic robes but it is a different story when they meet behind the curtains to elect an archbishop.

Behind the scenes lies some bitter truths that date back to the missionary days of the 19th century when Britons first came to Uganda as religious liberators under the Church Missionary Society (CMS) and aided the British colonialists to tame Ugandans.

The first major flashpoint in the Anglican Church came in 1953 shortly after CMS posted Leslie Brown, a Briton, to Uganda to head the church as Namirembe cathedral bishop. Influential figures in Buganda openly accused Brown of having a hand in the exiling of Sir Edward Muteesa II, the Kabaka of Buganda whose position makes him the patron of the cathedral.

BROWN FIRST ARCHBISHOP

Brown’s elevation to become the archbishop of the province of Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi and Boga-Zaire meant that he had to create several dioceses countrywide to spread the gospel. These included Rwenzori, Bukedi, Namirembe and Northern Uganda, among others.

The Anglican hierarchy had Rev Brown at the top deputised by Dunstan Nsubuga, the auxiliary bishop of Namirembe diocese, the seat of the church. Nsubuga would later become full bishop in 1965 and assumed many of the archbishop’s roles as Brown prepared to return to Britain later that year as part of the independence pact to grant Ugandans religious self-rule set the tone for a fractured Anglican leadership.

SABIITI’S FRACTIOUS SUCCESSION

Hell broke loose when Brown oversaw the election of his successor in a vote that Erica Sabiiti, the then bishop of Rwenzori diocese, defeated Nsubuga. This outcome greatly infuriated the Buganda leadership which held long-standing suspicion that Brown had gerrymandering interests like the colonialists.

The Buganda leadership, seeing how shaky their political influence was after independence, also accused Brown of undermining their key role in extending Christianity throughout the country; an achievement they felt entitled them to lead the Anglican Church after independence.

The Buganda leadership’s compromise was that Sabiiti, a Munyankore, takes over the office of the archbishop but remains bishop of Rwenzori, and not Namirembe. Sabiiti, however, rejected this and vowed to reign at the Namirembe seat of the Anglican church.

Whereas Nsubuga grudgingly accepted to work under Sabiiti, the fallout from the election had far-reaching consequences. It took the involvement of the state, right from President Edward Muteesa II, to mitigate the circumstances by carving out Kampala diocese from Namirembe diocese and handing it to Sabiiti for shepherding.

Nsubuga retained his stranglehold at Namirembe as Sabiiti superintended All Saints cathedral in Nakasero and a few of its subsidiary churches. In the new arrangement, the residences of the archbishop and bishop of Namirembe were swapped, meaning that Nsubuga’s new residence overlooked that of Sabiiti.

This created a dilemma where Sabiiti was the titular head of the Anglican Church whereas Nsubuga was the defacto powerbroker. At the height of the tensions in 1967, Edita Nassozi, a member of the Namirembe laity, humiliated Sabiiti when she slammed the doors of the main entrance to lock him out before a service.

From then on, Sabiiti often avoided Namirembe and served out the remainder of his term until clocking the mandatory 70 years of retirement in 1973 without any major incident. Well, that was until it came to choosing his successor in 1974.

ENTER LUWUM

By the time, more dioceses had been created such as Kigezi, West and Central Buganda. A little friction still existed between Buganda bishops and the rest and this led the former not to express interest in the top job, leaving it for 58-year-old Silvanus Wani to tussle it out with a much younger Janani Luwum who was 51 years.

At the end of the vote count, Luwum took the day but from the onset had a tough time with the Idi Amin regime. Some historians say the state had wanted Wani from the Kakwa tribe like Amin, to take over the position at the expense of Luwum, an Acholi. Wani was a former soldier in the King’s African Rifles with Amin and also later served as chaplain general to the army. It was also an open secret that Amin’s government didn’t get along well with the Acholi.

So, the Amin-Luwum tensions reached a nadir in 1977 when the state murdered Luwum. Several other bishops such as Hope Kivengere of Kigezi diocese and Yona Okoth of Bukedi diocese soon fled into exile.

ABOUT BISHOP KAZIIMBA

Bishop Kaziimba was consecrated Bishop on 26th October 2008 and has served as the Bishop of Mityana Diocese for almost eleven years. He was born on 15th August 1962 in Buikwe Najja to Besweri Kaddu and Jessica Nanyonjo. He was born again as a Christian in 1984.

Bishop Kaziimba did his diploma and an undergraduate degree in theology from Uganda Christian University, Mukono, and received his Master of Divinity and Doctor of Ministry degrees from Western Theological Seminary, Holland, Michigan (USA).

In addition to his responsibilities as a diocesan bishop, Kaziimba also currently serves as the chairman of the Provincial Board of Household and Community Transformation, as well as the chair of the Board of Trustees for Ndejje University, chair of the Committee for HIV and Public Health for the Interreligious Council of Uganda, and Chair of Words of Hope Uganda Radio Ministry.

Bishop Kaziimba is married to Margaret Naggayi Bulya and four grown sons, two grandchildren.

So, whereas any of the 33 bishops that have reached 65 years could have become archbishop, the real contest was between just about two or three. The state is always an interest party to have an archbishop who will not be critical. It is almost impossible to separate the state’s interest in the archbishop because he mirrors the views of more than 15 million Ugandans.

WANI Sole candidate

Days later, the state asked the remaining bishops to elect an immediate successor. Wani was unanimously seconded in what can be viewed as an effort by the Anglican Church to appease Amin and his henchmen.

Wani somehow steered clear of major controversy but faced a tough time after the fall of Amin in 1979 when some of colleagues in the House of Bishops saw him as part of Amin’s brutal regime.

Wani felt isolated and is said to have feared for his life in the Obote II government led by a military arm dominated by Acholis. In 1983, Wani still had two more years to serve before retiring but the situation had become untenable and chose to organise an election for his successor.

It was at this House of Bishops meeting that the issue of ethnicity was brought to the fore by suggesting the idea of rotating the position around Uganda. The two frontrunners were Kivengere and Okoth, both of whom had returned to the country after the fall of Amin in 1979. Kivengere, a Mukiga, was a popular multi-lingual preacher. He was the favourite, but the state wanted Okoth, a Japadhola.

STATE DARLING OKOTH

Okoth had played an active role in negotiations that saw the return of Milton Obote to the country and his controversial election as president in 1980. So, he was a popular person with the state when the House of Bishops elected him to become the fifth archbishop. He was 56 at the time.

However, Okoth didn’t have a smooth reign, especially with the rising insecurity in the country that had him fail to condemn state atrocities.

NRM’s takeover of state power in 1986 further saw the isolation of Okoth, with many colleagues in the House of Bishops viewing him as an Obote sympathiser.

It was under Okoth that the House of Bishops voted to reduce the mandatory retirement of the archbishop to 65 years but in spite of this fact, he tried to hold on after clocking the age in 1992 before he was literally dragged out in 1994 after a series of court petitions.

NKOYOOYO’S DAY

Since independence, the Anglican Church had never been united, both in action and words. For years, Buganda bishops united as one front but looked on as other bishops tore themselves to shreds in pursuit of the top job. In that regard, reconciliation was the catchword in the roadmap to elect Okoth’s successor.

Mukono diocese bishop Livingstone Mpalanyi Nkoyooyo, an affable orator, emerged as the choice of compromise to bridge the gap between Buganda and the rest of the country.

Nkoyooyo’s election as archbishop was a uniting factor between Buganda bishops and those from other regions. He enjoyed a controversy-free reign but by the time of leaving office in 2004, many of these dioceses had woken up to the value of land.

This was more profound in Buganda, where dioceses own huge chunks of land, some of which became leased for billions of shillings.

ASSERTIVE OROMBI

Bishop Henry Luke Orombi was relatively unknown outside of his Nebbi diocese but he represented a new breed of bishops that had risen to the top due to the creation of new dioceses.

His election was without controversy but he got a shock when he realised the powers of the archbishop are greatly limited to mainly supervision. He openly sought to correct the wrongs of the past that placed the archbishop in a peripheral role at Namirembe.

In a daring move that almost opened old scars, he suggested to have a central office to manage assets of the Anglican Church. This didn’t go down well with bishops in Buganda, who are comfortable with the decentralised structure that ensures that each diocese manages its own affairs, especially land. This, however, didn’t yield anything.

It goes without saying that dioceses in Buganda are some of the biggest landlords and removing the power to manage it was a borderline abomination to them. This economic factor is also one of the reasons bishops in Buganda don’t clamour for the top position since they can meet most of the financial needs.

Orombi spared the final days of his reign fighting what he called demonic attacks but used his farewell at Namirembe to voice out the need for unity in the House of Bishops.

CALM NTAGALI

Before the election in 2011, there was a general consensus that time had come to have an archbishop from the south-western Uganda, the only region that had not had someone ascend to the position.

Stanley Ntagali, the bishop of Masindi-Kitara, was the ultimate choice and didn’t have to go through a second round of voting after sweeping the votes. Calm and collected, he has managed to steer clear of major controversy but some have questioned the rampant sale of Church of Uganda assets under his reign.

Archbishop roll of honour

Livingstone Nkoyooyo is the longest-serving archbishop

Leslie Brown

Born: 1912
Reign: 1961–1965
Died: 1999

Erica Sabiiti

Born: 1903
Reign: 1965-1974
Died: 1988

Janani Luwum

Born: 1922
Reign: 1974-1977
Died: 1977

Silvanus Wani

Born: 1915
Reign: 1977-1983
Died: 1998

Yona Okoth

Born: 1927
Reign: 1983-1994
Died: 2001