Story Telling Research into Cults

Cult Conflict

Uganda, Jonestown, and other cults in history

by Elissa Haney

Murder and Suicide in Uganda

When 530 members of the Ugandan sect the Movement for the Restoration of the Ten Commandments of God died in an intentionally set fire on March 17, 2000, it was labeled the second-worst mass suicide on record, after Jonestown.

Upon further examination of the cult's compound in Kanungu, however, officials decided instead to handle it as a murder investigation. The bodies of 388 additional people—many clearly stabbed or strangled to death—have since been found buried in several mass graves on property owned by the sect.

Police have speculated that the Movement's leaders were systematically killing off members in the months leading up to the deadly blaze. Sixty-eight-year-old Joseph Kibwetere, the top leader, had prophesized that the world would end on Dec. 31, 1999. When this did not happen, Kibwetere changed the date of impending doom to Dec. 31, 2000. Some investigators believe that members of the cult were killed for expressing their disbelief or for requesting that the possessions they surrendered upon joining the cult be returned to them.

The Movement for the Restoration of the Ten Commandments of God was founded in 1994 by former prostitute Credonia Mwerinde. Mwerinde and Kibwetere are believed to have fled the Kanungu compound before it was destroyed by the fire.