Thousands of pilgrims are settled at both the Anglican and Catholic Shrines to celebrate 45 saints who sacrificed life for their faith.
Services are currently underway at both shrines with huge choirs singing hymns of praise to God in what seems to be a largely peaceful event.
The lead five organizing dioceses for this year’s Martyrs’ Day are West Ankole, North Ankole, North West Ankole, South Ankole, and Ankole Diocese.
Several government officials are present at the event including; Leader of Opposition in Parliament, Mathias Mpuuga, Speaker of Parliament Anita Among and former Vice President, Edward Kiwanuka Ssekandi arrive at Namugongo Catholic Shrine for Martyrs Day Celebrations
Others are Vice President Jessica Alupo (left) and Rebecca Kadaga (the First Deputy Prime Minister and also the Minister for East African Community Affairs),Deputy Speaker of Parliament Thomas Tayebwa , Minister of Security Maj Gen Jim Muhwezi at the Namugongo Anglican Shrine for the Martyrs Day celebrations.
Retired Bishop Samson Mwaluda from Anglican side in Kenya is scheduled to deliver the day’s sermon to thousands of Christians on the theme for the day is hope beyond affliction.
Both the Anglican and catholic martyrs’ sites have registered a few pilgrims despite no open activity since the last two years due to COVID-19 induced restrictions.
Rev Fr Vincent Lubega, the parish priest of Namugongo Catholic martyr’s shrines says they expected bigger numbers of pilgrims according to information they had gathered from several parishes across the country but they were puzzled by the low numbers.
“There must be an explanation. This might have been caused by the current economic situation. If you have little money, you can’t just come earlier as you might fail to support your stay,” Rev. Fr. Lubega says
Meanwhile security operatives have beefed up at the event to counter any criminal incidents on the Dday. Military officers are doing security checks on pilgrims who are arriving at Namugongo while several other officers under the joint task teams are deployed on the ground.
Police have so far registered four cases of theft of phones, one of stealing from a motor vehicle and one of indecent assault at Anglican Shrine and at the Catholic shrine, Police has registered 36 cases (35 thefts and one of issuing counterfeit currency).
All suspects are currently detained at Kira Division Police Station.
Police and other security agencies have come out to thank the pilgrims for following the security guidelines and being peaceful.
The Martyr’s day has been known as a crowd-pulling event with thousands of faithful trekking from all walks of life to pay homage to 45 Christian converts (22 Catholics and 23 Protestants) that were killed between 1885 and 1886 on the orders of Kabaka Mwanga II.
