Movement for the Restoration of the Ten Commandments of God

The Movement for the Restoration of the Ten Commandments of God was a new religious movement in Uganda. It existed from the 1980s, to the early 2000s. Credonia Mwerinde and Joseph Kibweteere founded it. They said the virgin Mary had appeared to them. The group split from the Roman Catholic Church. The group wanted to restore the Ten Commandments. They said that only by strictly following the Ten Commandments would they be saved. 

In 1998, the group was first noticed, because they made children work in a school they operated. There was also a very bad hygiene at that school. 

There was the text A Timely Message from Heaven: The End of the Present Time, which they considered to be their gospel. Each group member was expected to have read it at least six times. The teachings of the group were that those worthy of salvation would be saved, but that all the others would be punished.  Credonia Mwerinde was seen as the incarnation of the Virgin Mary. 

According to the group, the world would end on  31st December 1999.  When the world did not end that day, people became suspicious. They wanted their posessions back, which they had transferred to the group beforehand. According to survivers, people who asked to get their possessions back would mysteriously disappear. The first 530 followers died at a religious service, in a church, on 17th March 2000. The leaders of the cult had the doors nailed shut. Then they poured petrol on the wooden church, and put in on fire. Today, it is certain that Joseph Kibweteere was not among the dead in the church. He was seen alive, the following day. During the following days, several bodies were discovered on the farms of the group. In total, over 1.000 people died.

Medical examinations later  determined that the majority of dead sect members had been poisoned. Early reports suggested that they had been strangled based on the presence of twisted banana fibers around their necks. After searching all sites, the police concluded that earlier estimates of nearly a thousand dead had been exaggerated, even though the final death toll was 924.

After interviews and an investigation, the police ruled out a cult suicide, and instead consider it to be a mass murder by the Movement leadership. They believe that the failure of the doomsday prophecy led to a revolt in the ranks of the sect, and the leaders set a new date with a plan to kill their followers. The discovery of bodies at other sites, the fact the church had been boarded up, the presence of incendiaries, and the possible disappearance of sect leaders all point to this theory. Additionally, witnesses said the Movement leadership had never spoken of mass suicide when preparing members for the end of the world. A survivor recalled meeting a devout member of the cult with nails and a hammer on his way after he had left the cult. It is believed he is the one who shut the windows with nails to prevent any one from escaping.

The Ugandan government condemned the killings. President Yoweri Museveni called the event a "mass murder by these priests for monetary gain". Vice president Dr. Speciosa Wandira Kazibwe said, "These were [...] well-orchestrated mass murders [carried out] by a network of diabolic, malevolent criminals masquerading as religious people."

At the start, the five leaders were believed to have died in the fire.  Police now believe that Joseph Kibweteere and Credonia Mwerinde may still be alive, and have issued an international warrant for their arrest. In 2014, the Uganda National Police announced that there were reports that Kibweteere was hiding in Malawi.

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Cults