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How Luwum name was wiped off Church House
Church House on Plot 34 on Kampala Road. The 23rd Provincial Assembly of the Church of Uganda, which had sat in Mukono on August 25, 2016, resolved to honour Archbishop Luwum by naming the majestic 16-storey commercial building after him.
What you need to know:
- The wiping off or omission or inordinate delay to inscribe the name ‘Janani Luwum’ on the ‘Church House’ plaque, reveals that not even the Anglican Church of the Province of Uganda is spared issues of questionable integrity, transparency, accountability, and responsibility in its dealings.
When Anglican Archbishop Stanley Ntagali was handed the keys to the new and majestic 16-storey commercial building on Plot 34, Kampala Road, he declared it ‘Janani Luwum Church House.’ That was on June 14, 2018.
Archbishop Ntagali was sticking to a unanimous decision of the 23rd Provincial Assembly of the Church of Uganda, which had sat in Mukono on August 25, 2016, and resolved to honour Archbishop Luwum by naming the building after him.
But two months later, when the House was commissioned on August 24, 2018, the freshly minted plaque on the grand House only read ‘Church House.’ The name ‘Janani Luwum’, was wiped off, or was conspicuously omitted.
Some concerned Christians petitioned Archbishop Ntagali to explain why two resolutions of the Provincial Assembly, the highest decision-making organ of the Church of the Province of Uganda, had been ignored.
Archbishop Ntagali promised to revisit the issue, but has since retired and a new archbishop, Stephen Kaziimba, elected but the queries over the Janani Luwum name omission has not been answered, neither resolved.
Interestingly, then acting Provincial Secretary, Can Richard Obura, on behalf of Archbishop Ntagali, in a letter dated September 14, 2016, to the National Organising Committee of the 40th anniversary celebrations of the Janani Luwum Martyrdom, reaffirmed that “the 23rd Provincial Assembly had resolved to name the Church House ‘Janani Luwum Church House’ as a lasting recognition in memory of St Janani.”
Former Premier Ruhakana Rugunda, who represented President Museveni, and former Archbishop Ntagali, cut a tape to commission the building on June 14, 2018.
But more curiously, even the recently launched “Yes, We Can” fundraising campaigns championed by Archbishop Kaziimba to seek money to save the Church House project from Equity Bank’s $10 million (about Shs35b) loan and another Shs5 billion loan, has no mention of Janani Luwum.
Yet, at the commissioning, both Church of Uganda website, and Kampala’s All Saints Church blog, in articles celebrating the launch, referred to the commissioning of the ‘Janani Luwum Church House.’
Even President Museveni, who was represented by then prime minister Ruhakana Rugunda, in his written speech, declared: “I officially commission Janani Luwum Church House.” Invariably, the Office of the Prime Minister (OPM) website, headlined the occasion: Premier Rugunda opens Janani Luwum Church House.
Further afield, even the Anglican Communion news service, anglicannews.org, on June 15, 2018, carried the headline, ‘Janani Luwum Church House handed to Church of Uganda ahead of formal launch.’ Cementers, the contractors, had handed over the completed towering Church House a day earlier on June 14, 2018.
Just what could have happened within that space of two months to defy these popular, official, as well as Church positions to omit the name ‘Janani Luwum’ from ‘Church House’? Was the name “Janani Luwum Church House” rather too long for the plaque, or there were other hidden motives?
Back to its history, the Church House project was conceived as a commercial real estate enterprise in 1965. The project was then registered in 1971 as a private limited company, with professed aim to raise funds for the Church’s ministry and clergy pensions.
After six years, the house was then planned to be built on Shimoni Road, but Bank of Uganda proposed to take over the Shimoni Road site, and was exchanged for Plot 34 on Kampala Road in 1972.
When Northern Uganda Diocese Bishop Luwum was elected archbishop, he whole-heartedly embraced the project during his three-year tenure as Archbishop of Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, and Boga Zaire in the 1970s.
But Luwum was killed on the orders of former military ruler Idi Amin on February 16, 1977, together with ministers Erinayo Oryema and Oboth Ofumbi over allegations of plotting to overthrow his military junta.
Consequently, in 1988, the Provincial Assembly, sitting in Mukono in August 1988, with Archbishop Yonah Okoth at its head, passed a resolution renaming the project as Janani Luwum Memorial Centre in honour of slain Archbishop Luwum.
However, when the 23rd Provincial Assembly sat in Mukono on August 25, 2016, it resolved to adjust the name to “Janani Luwum Church House.”
But today, the name Janani Luwum features nowhere, with only Church House as the conspicuous label for the lofty building.
Curiously, as the Church House was commissioned during the 24th Provincial Assembly, invited were the family of Archbishop Luwum, who included wife Mary Luwum, son Ben Okello Luwum and wife. Also present were retired Archbishop Henry Luke Orombi, and all the Anglican bishops and their wives, who bore testimony to the omission but without raising any eyebrow.
Could have all these clerics forgotten the two resolutions of the Provincial Assembly that met in 1988, and again in 2016, and Archbishop Ntagali’s letter of affirmation of the name ‘Janani Luwum Church House’ in 2016?
Our search to account for this omission of the name ‘Janani Luwum’, from ‘Janani Luwum Church House’, has taken us through two former archbishops, retired and serving bishops, clerics and church administrators, and contractors, with all providing only vague responses.
A source within the Church of Uganda, who asked not to be named in order to speak freely, said the idea of naming the building after Janani Luwumu was first fronted in 1977. However, this was abandoned because they didn’t want to annoy the Amin regime.
“You know very well Amin was being blamed for the murder [of Luwum]. So it was going to be difficult for the Church to name it after him at the time. And it seemed the Church had moved on,” the source said.
Mr Barnabas Tumusingize, a managing partner at Sebulu & Lule Company Advocates, and current Church of Uganda’s provincial chancellor wasn’t forthcoming either.
“I know about the naming of the Church House, but the spokesperson of the Church of Uganda is the provincial secretary, who should be able to explain. Otherwise, you aren’t going to get anything from me,” he warned.
Ankole Bishop Sheldon Mwesigwa said it was “a simple” matter which can be explained by the provincial secretary.
“I can explain to you everything about Church House, but the person to do that is the provincial secretary. You should call him,” he said.
But Capt William Ongeng, the Church of Uganda provincial secretary, said not including Janani Luwum’s name on the building was a mere anomaly that’s going to be rectified sooner rather than later.
“I should tell you vividly that the name of that house is Janani Luwum Church House in full, and now we are working forward to include the name Janani Luwum because you have always seen Church House up there. Those who worked on it are coming back to include Janani Luwum such that it reads ‘Janani Luwum Church House’. It was a Provincial Assembly resolution. One Provincial Assembly after the other has been passing the resolution. The one of 2018 affirmed it,” he said.
Asked why there have been such inordinate delays to inscribe Luwum’s name on the building, Capt Ongeng said: “Soon or later, you will see the name inscribed on the house. They are working on it. Those who put up the signage just didn’t finish the work. I don’t sense any foul play. Just be at peace and just know it will be done soon.”
But this reassurance of a correction, to add the name ‘Janani Luwum’ ‘soon or later’ or that the work is unfinished, comes after an unexplainable omission and undue delays despite two resolutions by Church of Uganda’s highest decision-making organ, the Provincial Assembly in 1988 and 2016, and public pronouncements in 2018.
This failure to give lasting recognition to the memory of Janani Luwum since 1988, has lasted through five archbishops, namely Yonah Okoth, Livingstone Nkoyooyo, Orombi, Ntagali, and now Kazimba.
Perhaps, what is clear is that the wiping off or omission or inordinate delay to inscribe the name ‘Janani Luwum’ on ‘Church House’ on the plaque, reveals that not even the Anglican Church of the Province of Uganda is spared issues of questionable integrity, transparency, accountability, and responsibility in its dealings.
Timeline of The Church House project
1965: Concept for Church House as a commercial real estate enterprise
1971: Church House Company registered as a Private Limited Company.
1972: Plot on Shimoni Road exchanged for Plot 34, Kampala Road
2010: Construction starts
2012: Expected date of completion.
Construction delays over 18-month conflict among service providers.
2014: Conflict resolved
Provincial Secretariat conducts walk-through prays for building
Construction resumes.
2010: Trustees of CoU enter $17 million (Shs60b) loan deal with Equity Bank to build House
2016: The 23rd Provincial Assembly lauds Museveni for gazetting February 16 as Janani Luwum Day.
