The Movement for the Restoration of the Ten Commandments of God (Movement for the Restoration of the Ten Commandments of God, MRTC in English) is a sect of Detachment from the Catholic Church founded in Uganda's Kanungu County by Credonia Mwerinde and Joseph Kibweteere. Founded in the 1980s, the movement grew over a decade under the leadership of five Credonia Mwerinde leaders, Joseph Kibwetere, Joseph Kasapurari, John Kamagara, and Dominic Kataribabo. However, in March 2000, several hundred believers were found dead by the Ugandan police. Some died in a fire in their church, and others were poisoned or murdered. After investigation, the collective suicide hypothesis was ruled out. Rather, it seems that the group's leaders, following the announcement of the impending apocalypse, directly orchestrated this mass murder.
After independence in 1962, Uganda experienced decades of strong political and social instability subsequent to the Idi Amin dictatorship, the bush war, the outbreak of the AIDS pandemic, and the lack of real democracy. Many Ugandans eventually gave up hope and left the Catholic Church.
Since the 1980s, as in other African countries, several charismatic groups have formed around the self-proclaimed messiahs and began to attract a large number of followers. These groups prospered all the faster as they allowed the faithful to experience advancements in the hierarchy that they could not count on while remaining in the Catholic Church.
In 1986, a young girl, Alice Lakwena of Gulu in the far north of Uganda, founded a spiritual movement, the Holy Spirit Movement, to wage a "war on evil" by enacting the law of the Ten Commandments. At the head of an army of believers who believed themselves invincible by the magical practices of turning their enemies' bullets into the water, she confronted the Ugandan (National Resistance Army) army, then withdrew and fled to Kenya.
Unlike the Holy Spirit Movement, most of these sects have long benefited from the benevolence of the authorities in Uganda, as evidenced by an audience with Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni to representatives of the Restoration of the Ten Commandments Movement on September 20, 1994, at his residence in Rvacitura. However, in the late 1990s, governments began to worry about the activities of some of these groups. On September 18, 1999, in Bukoto, Nakaseke County, Ugandan police attacked a farm used by an apocalyptic sect of the Last World Church, whose members were accused of kidnapping children and sexually abusing minors. On November 19, 1999, Ugandan police dispersed a congregation of a sect led by a 19-year-old prophetess who claimed she had died in 1996 and returned to earth to call people to repentance before the year 2000.
According to the press and teaching disseminated by the sect itself, Paulo Kashaku, the father of Credonia Mwerinde, was the initiator of the movement. In 1960, his late daughter Evangelista appeared to him and told him that one day he would see paradise. This prophecy would come true in 1988 with the vision of Jesus Christ, the Virgin Mary, and St. Joseph. Later, his daughter Credonia reportedly had similar visions. In 1989, Paulo Kashaku, saying that he was acting on the orders of the Mother of God, allegedly asked his daughter Creedonia to broadcast messages throughout Uganda about the impending end of the world. It was at this time that Credonia met Joseph Kibwetere, a local eminent who claimed to have also received a vision from the Virgin Mary in 1984. Together, they created the Movement for the Restoration of the Ten Commandments of God, the purpose of which was to scrupulously obey the Ten Commandments and preach the word of Jesus Christ to avoid condemning people at the Last Judgment.
A report by the Ugandan Human Rights Commission published in 2002 proposed a completely different version of the circumstances that led to the emergence of the movement: in 1988, Mwerinde, probably under the influence of the Rwandan Tutsi refugees from Kibeho, where the Marian apparition took place, joined the movement founded by Blandina Buzigye, a woman who also claims to have experienced Our Lady's apparitions at Nyabugoto Rock, in the Rukungiri District. Blandina Buzigye claimed to have been informed by the Virgin Mary that the Apocalypse was approaching and was on a mission to create a Movement for the Restoration of the Ten Commandments to enable the salvation of godly people. It was within this movement that Credonia Mwerinde would secure his leadership position and recruit several important members of the sect, such as Joseph Mwerinde, Paul Ikazire, and Dominic Kataribabo. From 1992, she further strengthened her influence in the movement by providing the sect with land donated by her father in Kateete, Kanungu District.
The movement defended the literal and comprehensive version of the Ten Commandments: the ninth commandment, "Do not bear false witness", was thus interpreted broadly, believers, including children, do not have the right to speak and must communicate with each other using the sign language alone. Devotees also had to sell all their belongings before joining the community, practice frequent fasting, eat only one meal on Fridays and Mondays, abstain from all sexual intercourse, and no longer use soap.
Despite its rigorous nature, the movement quickly achieved great success, especially with the arrival of Paul Ikazire and Dominic Kataribabo, a former priest with a doctorate from the United States. At the end of the 1990s, the movement gathered nearly 5,000. followers. The latter built an elementary school and houses to recruit, educate and pray. They bought the land along with the money they received from selling their property when they joined the commune. The sect also had banana and pineapple plantations.
Several incidents interrupted the movement's life in those years. In 1992, driven from Rwashamaire by the village elders and Joseph Kibwetere's family, the faithful had to settle on property provided by Father Mwerinde in the Kanungu District. In 1994, Paul Ikazire left the sect with seven other members. In 1998, the sect was accused of exploiting child labor, possessing unsanitary premises, and kidnapping minors. To this end, a denunciation letter was sent to the Ugandan Human Rights Commission. The school, Ishayuuriro rya Maria, was temporarily closed but continued to receive state aid (Universal Primary Education).
What worried the Ugandan authorities (especially the intelligence services) most was the teaching disseminated by the cult leadership. Summarized in A Timely Message from Heaven: The End of the Present Time, this teaching has mainly focused on the near end of time. The group's leaders convinced the faithful that they were in direct contact with Our Lady and that the world would end on January 1, 2000. They presented the movement as a kind of Noah's Ark that could save the righteous in a completely corrupt world. Nevertheless, the surveillance of the traffic by the local police was insufficient and did not prevent the tragedy.
On March 21, 2000, world news agencies made reports of a gruesome discovery in Uganda. The number of bodies found near the headquarters of the Movement for the Restoration of the Ten Commandments of God was increasing day by day. It is not known whether they died as a result of self-immolation or there was a mass murder.
Local policemen investigating the alleged suicide of members of the sect discovered a grave freshly flooded with cement near the site of the tragedy. There was no sign of any injuries on the bodies. Investigators assume that the cause of death was asphyxiation or poisoning. This would confirm the hypothesis that not all followers of the movement realized that they could become victims. Perhaps they were trying to defend themselves. Among the 300 bodies found, there were 80 children. The estimated number of those killed was 500-600. Today we know that there were nearly 1,000 of them. On March 21, 2000, a symbolic funeral of all members of the sect was held.
The followers of the Movement for the Restoration of God's Ten Commandments were promised to go to heaven in 2000. As the turn of the century approached, they were ordered to sell all their possessions and possessions. The funds obtained were to be transferred to the leaders of the sect. The leaders were Joseph Kibwetere, Credonia Mwerinde, Angelina Mugisha, Franz Joseph Kasapurari, and Dominic Kataribabo.
As the next days of 2000 passed and nothing happened, the members of the sect began to worry. Some asked questions. They were told that the day the Lord would descend and take them to heaven was soon to come. Eventually the leaders decided to lock them up in the temple. There was a fire under it. It was only later discovered that much worse things had happened before the church was set on fire.
A religious movement derived from Catholicism was established in the 1980s in Uganda. He was strongly associated with the cult of the Decalogue. The members of the group had to obey the commandments absolutely and were rewarded with eternal life. The Apocalypse was equally important in the ideology of the movement. For a detailed explanation of this book, see "The Present Message from Heaven: The End of Today". The worshiped figure was Mary, it was with her that the leaders of the sect were to communicate. She, too, was to tell them that the world would end in 2000.
One of the former preachers, Martino Nuwagada, reveals that as early as Easter in 1992, members of the movement were warned against the day of doomsday. Huge snakes were to appear then, and concrete blocks of cement would fall on the sinners. For three days there would be darkness over the whole earth. Only in the headquarters of the movement was to be safe, like in Noah's Ark during the flood.
Followers believed that they would be communicating with Jesus soon. After the events of 2000, it was established that members of the group were using drugs. The inhabitants of the Kanungu area also testified that outbreaks near the sect's headquarters were not uncommon. These were ritual sacrifices made of material goods - clothes, bedding, coins, bottles, or razor blades.
The Human Rights Commission, after unmasking the headquarters of the Movement for the Restoration of the Ten Commandments of God, issued a special report. It stated that worship violated many human rights, in particular freedom of expression, freedom from torture, cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment, the right to private property, the right to health, marriage, and children's rights. Instead, leaders established new guidelines that members had to follow.
Their New Commandments:
1. Priests and leaders kept reminding the faithful of the day of doomsday.
2. Human rights have been violated, incl. the right to education, health, property, freedom, and parenthood.
3. Close relatives or neighbors were rarely invited to join the community.
4. Families were separated, and children and parents were separated and placed in different camps to make it more difficult to adapt to the new conditions.
5. The traffic headquarters were fenced so that outsiders could not get to them.
6. A new society was built only around the followers of the cult. Having children and having sex, even in marriage, was strictly forbidden.
7. Systematic intimidation and fears were instilled among cult members.
8. Only selected passages of the Bible, without any context, were read. It was easier to build false prophecies on them and manipulate them accordingly.
9. Apart from the leaders, no one was allowed to speak. Members communicated with each other using special characters from the so-called code of silence. They had a very busy schedule, they were still doing some work, so they didn't even communicate in sign language.
10. The leaders of the sect tried to obey the state law and maintained friendly relations with the authorities so as not to arouse suspicions on the part of the state.
11. All real estate was sold to the members of the group and the accumulated funds were given to the leaders.
12. The properties were set on fire on the pretext that Mary was irritated and angry with their owners.
13. A helpless and poor society was created, totally dependent on the religious movement and its creators, with nothing to come back to in the outside world.
14. The leaders took full advantage of the fact that religious people are always innocent, humble, harmless, and trusting. So they could prepare for the "last day" with impunity.
15. The members of the sect were completely separated from their "unbelieving" relatives. Thus, no one outside the Movement for the Overthrow of the Ten Papers of God knew about the planned sacrifice.
The day after the funeral, more and more doubts arose as to whether it was a suicide. There were many indications of mass murder. The fire was to be caused by an explosion of six bombs, and not, as previously assumed, a fire in the church of the Movement for the Restoration of the Ten Commandments of God. Paradoxically, members of the sect could be murdered because they opposed plans to commit mass suicide.
After searching all the sites, the police reduced the death toll from 1,000 to 778. A forensic investigation found that, with the exception of the faithful who died in the church fire, most of the victims were poisoned. Initially, the presence of banana fiber ties around their necks suggested they had been strangled. At the end of the investigation, the police concluded that the tragedy was not the result of mass suicide, but of a mass murder organized by the leadership of the Movement. A few days before the tragedy, Dominic Kataribabo was seen buying 50 liters of sulfuric acid that could be used to set fire to the building.
The investigation also revealed that Joseph Kibwetere was in contact with William Kamm, guru of the thousand-year-old Australian sect, The Marian Workers of Atonement, who also claimed to have seen the Virgin Mary and who was sentenced to 15 years in prison for sexual assault in 2007.
The Ugandan government condemned this tragedy. Suspecting they were still alive, the authorities issued an international arrest warrant for Joseph Kibweteere and Credonia Mwerinde, and four other cult leaders. Despite a reward of 2 million Ugandan shillings for each person arrested, neither of them was ever found.
In 2002, the Human Rights Commission issued a report on the Kanungu tragedy. The sect was found to have committed several human rights cases of abuse, including kidnapping and maltreatment of children (beatings, malnutrition) and attacks on physical integrity as punishments for adults, "not following the orders of the leaders of the movement.
The commission also found that the sect had benefited from the complicity of local authorities in Rukungiri and Kanungu counties. The commission criticized Rukungiri district commissioner Kitaka Gawers for agreeing to lay the foundation stone for one of the sect's buildings on June 28, 1997, and in 1994 his predecessor refused to register the sect as an NGO. She also accused Kanungu District Deputy Commissioner Mutazindwa Amooti of resolving several administrative problems faced by the sect (notably its registration as an NGO in 1997) in return for kindly sending two supporters of the movement to clean up his residence. There have also been a few cases of attempts to bribe local authorities by sect members. Overall, the Commission recommended that corruption cases involving local authorities be investigated and called for increased monitoring of NGO activities by the NGO Registration Board.
In September 2011, the Ig Nobel Prize in Mathematics was awarded to six people, including Credonia Mwerinde, for predicting the end of the world on different dates and "showing the world to be very careful when making mathematical calculations and deductions".
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