I bring to your attention the National Religious & Faith Based Organisations (RFBOs) Policy that is currently being pushed and expedited by The Office of The President through the Directorate for Ethics and Integrity.

In an attempt to win over the public, the Policy is being disguised as an antidote for extreme and wayward practices among religious leaders, particularly pastors, but in reality it is a move by government to exercise control over all manner of religious expression and worship across all denominations.

The Draft Policy which was released in July 2019 shows how the Ministry of Ethics and Integrity will metamorphose into a Ministry of Religious Affairs with far-reaching powers to vet doctrine and with “the mandate for registration, regulation, monitoring and overseeing the activities of all religions” (Direct quotation from the Draft Policy).

It explicitly states that: “The Office of The President…shall be the Lead Agency for monitoring and overseeing the operations of all religious organisations in Uganda.”

While democratic nations worldwide advocate for the separation of Church/Mosque/Temple/Synagogue and State, the new law seeks to make all religions subservient to the State.

The proposed policy flies in the face of freedom of worship, conscience and association as enshrined in our constitution and other International Conventions to which Uganda is a party.

Earlier this year, a similar bill was fronted in Parliament by John Baptist Nambeshe, MP for Manjiya County in Bududa district, and was thrown out by Legislators. At the time, Kiira Municipality MP Ibrahim Semujju Nganda rightly referred to it as “the Satanic Bill”.

The new Policy being fronted promises to be far more repressive and bears uneasy similarities with Communist style laws that deified political leaders. Coincidentally, or perhaps not, one of the most vociferous propagators of the Policy has cited China as one of the ‘developed’ countries that have adopted similar laws.

In China's far western region of Xinjiang, several mosques have been closed and even razed to the ground as the authorities embarked on a massive crackdown on Islam, claiming that their policies only target violent religious extremism, not faith itself. But the reality is different.

A report in South China Morning Post said that the mosques were closed as they were “illegally established and conducted illegal religious education.”

Authorities justified the mass internment by saying that they simply intended to bring the Muslim Uighur people into a “modern, civilized” world.

A UN report says over a million Muslims are currently detained in what the government calls “re-education camps.”

The Chinese government also imposed a ban on both women wearing headscarves and the religious instruction of children. The government of the Xinjiang province said that that any Muslims who think alcohol, cigarettes or dancing are forbidden need to be arrested.

The crackdown hasn’t spared Christians.

A report in the UK Guardian newspaper states that: “The government has orchestrated a campaign to ‘sinicise’ Christianity, to turn Christianity into a fully domesticated religion that would do the bidding of the party and adopt its teachings to the Communist Party doctrine.”

Authorities have also removed crosses from buildings, forced churches to hang the Chinese flag and sing patriotic songs, and barred minors from attending.

Admittedly, Uganda’s proposed RFBOs Policy is not (yet) as severe as its Chinese forerunner, but it is a step in that direction. It empowers the Minister to appoint an RFBO board which has almost unlimited powers to vet everything that is said on all religious platforms.

At the decentralized level, the District RFBO Boards will be chaired by the Resident District Commissioner (RDC), with the Chief Administrative Officer (CAO) as its secretary, with Community Development Officer (CDO) and District Internal Security Officers (DISOs) as automatic members.

It is a sad scenario in which political appointees will have complete control over religious affairs and morality.

Therefore, I call upon all Members of the House to join us in this battle of conscience which should transcend political affiliation. Freedom of worship and association is the most sacrosanct right bestowed upon us by our Creator and we must fight at all costs to protect it… while we still can.

Joseph Kabuleta

Under clause 8.2, an institutional and coordination arrangements for the implementation of the RFBO policy is created and this creates an RFBO committee at district level. This committee will be composed of the District RDC as the Chairman, the Chief Administrative Officer as the Secretary, Community Development Officer, District Internal Security Officer and a Representative of the RFBOs in the District. The abovementioned committee is constituted of majorly political appointees who may not be conversant with spiritual matters and are therefore ill-equipped to monitor RFBOs.

That creates a dangerous political influence that could likely cause a violation of the right to a fair hearing seeing as the adjudicators are not necessarily independent.

Further, the policy in its entirety does not create an appeal mechanism especially if a specific RFBO is disgruntled by a decision made by the institutional bodies that will have decisive powers over the functioning and operations of the religious organisations.

 

It’s from the above mechanisms that there will be a likelihood of the state influencing the nature of the doctrine that ought to be preached on RFBO platforms given that RFBOs are being categorized as partners with the government to propagate its agenda in regard to education, health care, community development and other social services.

Such political expediency, we aver, will not only compromise and bias the RFBOs but also unwittingly and inevitably create an overstepping and unnecessary control of RFBO affairs by the state.

 

In conclusion, it is my recommendation that the Ministry of Ethics and Integrity runs a sensitization policy on the existing penal laws which adequately deal with the issues the RFBO Policy and Bill purport to address in order to avoid duplication of laws.

Also, the state should steer clear of limiting Religious Freedoms to the roots, and adhere to the fact that under Article 7 of the 1995 Constitution, it is a secular state providing for all forms of worship.

 

Simon Ssenyonga