Kibwetere Faked Death In 1990

Africa News Online, New Vision (Kampala), April 3, 2000
By John B. Thawite

Kampala - Doomsday religious cult leader Joseph Kibwetere faked his death in 1990, sources have said. Quoting Israel Bagarukayo, a former school inspector in Rukungiri, the sources said Kibwetere bought a coffin and told his followers to fill it with stones and dig a grave.

"He told them to announce he had died while he dressed in white robes and hid in the roof of his church at Kanungu so that he would 'resurrect' on the third day," the sources said yesterday.

They said this was meant to make the followers believe he was a true prophet. The sources said when the followers sent for his wife, Theresa Kibwetere, now 64, she refused to bury her husband, saying she had to see the body but they refused.

"She became suspicious and tipped off security personnel, who came and forced the coffin open and found stones inside," a source from Rukungiri said on Friday.

Over 900 bodies of his followers have been exhumed from various mass graves in Rukungiri and Bushenyi districts.