The family of former Archbishop Janani Luwum has rejected the proposed exhumation of his remains and reburial at Namirembe cathedral.
The province of the Church of Uganda had proposed that the remains of Archbishop Janani Luwum, one of the most influential leaders of the modern Church in Africa, be moved to near the seat of the province in honor of his legacy and a befitting burial at the seat of the province.
Luwum was killed on February 16, 1977, accused of being in cahoots with forces that were planning to overthrow the then government. Archbishop Luwum was a leading critical voice of the excesses of the Idi Amin regime.
Dr Olara Otunnu, a member of the organising committee for the annual Janani Luwum day celebrations planned for February 16, told journalists in Gulu on Monday that the family rejected the exhumation because they are opposed to any further disturbance of the deceased.
A family member who declined to be named, said relocating the remains of the archbishop would stagnate the development of Wii Gweng, his ancestral ground.
“Janani was a prophetic leader of the Church. He was killed for saying the guns that should protect the people have been turned on people. And his death became the seed that led to the growth of the Church”, Bishop Benoni Ogwal Abwang, the retired bishop of the Northern Uganda diocese, said.
Shortly before the killing, Luwum delivered a protest note to Idi Amin against the arbitrary killings and unexplained disappearances of key individuals that spoke against the regime. He and other leading churchmen were then accused of treason.
He was subsequently murdered with two other high-profile Ugandans; IGP Erinayo Wilson Oryema and former defense minister Oboth Ofumbi. At the time, he was the archbishop of Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi and Boga-Zaire. Soldiers buried his remains in a makeshift grave in Wii-Gweng parish in Mucwini sub-county.
