Pastoral Letter

Buidling a peaceful, stable and thriving Nation:

Our prophetic role in the 2016 General
Elections

Working together for peaceful and violence free 2016

elections

Pastoral Letter 2015

Preamble

As Uganda celebrated 50 years of Independence, we, religious leaders, took time to

reflect on our contribution to nation building during this period. We noted that we have
made tremendous contribution in the provision of education, health services as well as
giving people meaning and hope during the turbulent times of our political history.
We also reflected on our sad history, when, as faith groups, we were involved in
rivalry and battles for influence. We thank God for efforts of our forefathers and present
leaders in establishing institutions such as the Uganda Joint Christian Council, Uganda
Muslim Supreme Council and Inter-Religious Council of Uganda, which have brought
us together to serve Gods people and our country.
For religious leaders to be effective in their work for peace and stability, we agreed
to uphold the following values and principles.

 upholding values of dialogue and peaceful co-existence in fulfilling our prophetic

calling, as inspired by Holy Scripture and guided by our national motto;
strengthen and participate actively, through our local interfaith structures, in
addressing obstacles to our working together for national peace, stability
and development;
create platforms for interfaith dialogue and understanding among IRCU members;
guard against tendencies that seek to undermine our unity;
draw from our experience in 2011 to work tirelessly to engage relevant actors to
create an environment for peaceful, non-violent and fair elections in 2016.
As religious leaders we believe that Uganda, our motherland can regain her glory as
the Pearl of Africa and that God has given us the necessary infrastructure and
leadership to mobilize and organize the entire country to work for peace and stability
in this country.
We also believe that peace and stability is a collective endeavor with every citizen
and sector in society playing its role diligently.

Our Message, Our Concerns

Elections provide an opportunity for the

citizens to reflect on where the country
is, in light of their aspirations and
development goals
For elections to be meaningful, citizens must be clear of what kind of
country they would desire to see and what needs to be done to get it
there. We, therefore, call for sober reflection on the part of the citizens,
preferably at community level, to assess the status of social services e.g.
education, health, security and poverty. We then use these realities to
evaluate the manifestoes of those presenting themselves for leadership.
This will require safe places for dialogue at community level and other
levels, so we call upon our fellow religious leaders to provide these spaces
in a non-partisan manner in order to empower citizens to make informed
choices. The media also have a critical role to play in creating platforms to
enable sober reflections and to broaden the perspectives and deepen the
analysis of citizens by drawing on examples from other countries in the
way they are tackling their development needs.

Elections provide an opportunity for

citizens to serve in elective offices
Those who feel called to serve in elective offices are vying for positions
through either political party structures or as independent candidates.
Serving ones country is always a privilege and an honour. We, therefore,
call upon those vying for elective offices not to treat it as a matter of life
and death, giving the impression that this is the only way they can serve
their

country.

They

should

refrain

from

adversarial

approaches

to

leadership, but demonstrate a spirit of openness to collaborate and reach

out even to those who are not members of their political party. Nation
building is always a collective effort of all the citizens, and developing
economies like ours should maximize the use of all the available human
resources in order to harness the skills among our citizens, even if they are
of different political or religious persuasions.

Elections can trigger violence in a country

We are acutely aware of what happened to our neighbours in Kenya.

National solidarity should supersede political party interests. As citizens of
Uganda, this is our country where we all must live in peace and thrive. We
cannot wish others away because they have chosen to support a certain
political party or candidate. We, therefore, owe it to each other to ensure
that we live in peace. We plead with all Ugandans, especially security
agencies
to act within the spirit of our national motto and ensure that everybody has

the space
to exercise their constitutional rights without coercion and to build mutual
trust among the citizens.

For Elections to contribute to national

cohesion and stability, they must be built
on integrity
We continue to live with the reality that grievances with regard to the
elections in 1980 sparked of an armed insurgency in Luwero in which
thousands of our fellow citizens lost their lives and many more continue to
nurse the effects of that war. We, therefore, urge those institutions that
have a role to play in managing the electoral processes namely, the
Electoral Commission, the Judiciary, Security agencies, and political parties
to exercise their mandates with integrity, due diligence and fairness.

Elections can lead to a peaceful political

transition in the Country
While Uganda has not experienced peaceful political transitions, in many
countries, elections are the means through which change of Governments
come. Elections are, therefore, always pregnant of possibilities. It is
important for both the political party in Government and those in the
opposition to internalize the possibilities that elections may bring. Since
leadership, if and when, rightly understood is about service, then those
aspiring for leadership must not underestimate or overestimate their
capacities. They
should allow the citizens to decide whom they want to give a chance to
serve them. Those seeking elective offices should, therefore, be
psychologically prepared to either win gracefully or lose honourably.
Civilized politics presupposes that those who aspire for higher elective

offices have developed a level of statesmanship and patriotism. Under no

circumstances should they impose their personal ambitions and opinions
against the will of the people, as is the case with some of the leaders of
our neighbouring countries that have degenerated into political unrest.

Pastoral Letter 2015

Working together for peaceful and violence free 2016

elections

While Elections are a process, strictly they are

a one- day event
Citizens must engage in all the electoral activities like registering to vote,
evaluating those who are aspiring for different ofices and going out to vote.
More often, electoral processes create polarized relationships in the
communities. This disrupts harmony and sometimes leads to domestic
violence. We would like to plead with politicians to appreciate that the
bonds that hold the people in communities together are like their
insurance policy. They depend on each other for survival. Politicians
should,

therefore,

campaigns.

They

desist
should

from
also

sowing seeds
avoid

of

unleashing

hatred

during

violence

on

the
the

communities through their militia groups.

Elections are meaningful if people are able to vote

without being bribed
Through civic education, Civil Society Organizations must sensitize and
educate the citizens to enable them realize that the way they exercise their
right to vote may have consequences for their well-being for the next five
years and more. Religious leaders need also to educate voters to learn to
exchange their votes for long-term social services and not short-lived gifts
e.g. soap, salt, sugar etc. Those politicians that seek to buy votes should be
de-campaigned because they are responsible for the impoverishment of the
people to the extent that a gift worthy a few thousand shillings is seen as
manna from heaven. The politics of the stomach where leaders distort the
choices

of

the

citizenry

from

voting

for

substance

needs

to

be

Working together for peaceful and violence free 2016

elections

Pastoral Letter 2015

discouraged. The population needs to be helped to appreciate the need for

hard work and to choose leaders that are committed to supporting them in
their productive endeavours instead of those who seek to turn them into
perpetual beggars.

God knows the hearts of people since

elections are about choosing human beings
to manage our affairs
It is critical for citizens to appreciate that human beings can be deceitful.
It is for this reason that people of faith must seek guidance from God
about who to entrust with the responsibilities of leadership. Bad leaders
bring a curse to the country and cause suffering to Gods people, while
good leaders edify the nation and cause sustainable development. We,
therefore, implore all religious leaders to create spaces for sustained
prayers for the nation and to listen to what God might be saying in light of
the current events.

Holding peaceful elections should be every

ones choice
Fellow citizens we plead with you to invest in peaceful elections. The peace
and transformed society we all desire will not come on a silver platter, we
need to work for it. And holding peaceful elections, is one of the means that
will ensure national stability as we work hard towards that desired end.

Working together for peaceful and violence free 2016

elections

Pastoral Letter 2015

Signed for and on behalf of the

Inter-Religious Council of Uganda

Apostle Dr.
Joseph
Serwadda
President, Born Again
Faith in Uganda

His Eminence
Metropolitan
Jonah Lwanga
General Overseer, National
Alliance of
Pentecostal and
Evangelical Churches
in Uganda

His Eminence Sheikh

Shaban
Mufti, Uganda
Muslim Supreme
Council

His Grace Dr.

Cyprian Kizito
Lwanga
Archbishop
Kampala
Archdiocese

His Eminence
Metropolitan
Jonah Lwanga
Archbishop,
Uganda
Orthodox
Church

His Grace the

Most Rev. Stanley
Ntagali
Archbishop, Province
of the Church of
Uganda

Pr. Daniel Matte

President, Seventhday Adventist
Uganda Union

Inter-Religious Council of Uganda

P.O.Box 7502 Kampala Uganda
Plot 884, Centenary Road,
Namirembe Hill ircu@ircu.or.ug
+256 414 342877
+256 312 265670