KIHIHI – The Bishop of Kinkizi Diocese Anglican Diocese, Rt Rev Dan Zoreka, has described as a fabricated a report exonerating a reverend and his wife from planning to poison and bewitch him.
The archdeacon of Kihihi Archdeaconry, Rev Justus Tibesigwa and his wife Desire Kiconco were in December 2019 arrested on allegations that they worked with the bishop’s maid to poison him. This was after the bishop’s maid was found with a tin containing some concoctions and she confessed that she had been sent by Ms Kiconco.
However, the CID on January 22 wrote to the Bishop and other diocese leaders, indicating that after subjecting the tin to a laboratory test, they found nothing poisonous.
“No compound of toxicological interest was detected. Methylparaben and propylparaben are preservatives with anti-bacterial and anti-fungal properties and are widely used in pharmaceutical industries; they have no documented health effect or harm on human life,” the letter, which is also copied to Kinkizi East MP Chris Baryomunsi and former Prime Minister Amama Mbabazi, who is the head of laity in the diocese, reads in part.
But Bishop Zoreka said the laboratory results were falsified and he demanded another police investigation.
“All contents are falsified. Investigations were done and to the best of our knowledge, contents there are not what the witnesses stated. What is there is challengeable,” he said on Sunday.
The diocese has been mired in conflict since its inception. For instance, in 2019, a group of Christians petitioned then Church of Uganda Archbishop Stanley Ntagali, calling for the defrocking of Bishop Zoreka whom they accused of, among others, running down the diocese through alleged embezzlement of church funds, favouritism, adultery and lack of requisite academic qualifications.
In two separate petitions dated November 28, 2019 and December 2, 2019, the Christians through John Bindeba from Rugyeyo Archdeaconry say Bishop Dan Zoreka, who was enthroned in 2010, has destroyed the church’s image in the diocese through mismanaging of church funds, lack of accountability and stifling development.
In 2010, a cross section of Christians in the diocese also contested nomination of Rev. Can. Bernard Bagaba by the House of Bishops, forcing the latter to appoint Bishop Zoreka. The aggrieved Christians under the Concern Fellowship organisation, contended that the Rev. Bagaba had been unconstitutionally elected. Led by former Kinkizi East MP Hamlet Kabushenga, they claimed that the Rev. Bagaba’s election was conducted by a nomination committee instead of an electoral college.
They also raised allegations that the Rev. Bagaba who had served as the diocesan secretary is not fit to head the diocese because he fathered children out of wedlock which is against the Anglican values.
