Uganda’s 2014 census indicates that Ugandans are 84.5 percent Christians and 13.7 percent are Muslim. Most of Uganda’s Muslims live in Eastern Region. Article 2 of Uganda’s Constitution affirms the supremacy of the Constitution over “any other law or any custom”. The government is secular, freedom of speech and religion are guaranteed, as are the rights of minorities (Articles 2,7,29,36).
At independence (1962) Uganda had 18 districts. When Musevini came to power in 1986, there were 33. By the year 2000 there were 56, and by the time of the February 2016 general elections there were 112. In September 2015, parliament approved the creation of 23 more districts: four to become effective on 1 July 2016; with another six to become effective on 1 July 2017; another six on 1 July 2018; followed by seven more to become effective on 1 July 2019. As of July 2020, Uganda is divided into 135 districts along with the capital city of Kampala. While national-level conflict has decreased, it has been replaced with local-level conflict and systemic corruption.
Today, Christians living in Muslim majority districts are increasingly finding that the secularism, religious liberty and minority rights enshrined in the constitution are little more than a mirage. While none of the Muslim-dominated districts have as yet declared themselves to be Sharia Districts, the reality is they don’t actually need to, for they already function as de-facto Sharia fiefdoms where Christians may be persecuted with impunity.
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Uganda Analysis: escalating persecution of Christians in Eastern Region linked to Islamisation, decentralisation and impunity.
By Elizabeth Kendal, 8 May 2017.
