‘Put your sword back in its place’ In Mathew 26:52 Jesus told his disciples that ‘for all who draw the sword will die by the sword.’
However, with the increasing rate at which the grabbers are encroaching on church land within the Mukono diocese, Bishop Enos Kitto Kagodo has started encouraging Christians to use violence against them.
The bishop has recently told Christians that violence is not a pastoral approach but lately is the only way to go.
“That’s where we have reached, it is now the bishop urging people to fight, the encroachers, don’t handle them peacefully but handle them violently, it is not a pastoral approach but now that is the way to go.” Bishop Kagodo noted this during the recent teacher’s meeting.
Since his installation as the Bishop of Mukono diocese, Kagodo has been appealing to the government’s intervention to stop land grabbers in vain.
According to him, the many encroachments on church land have brought several church programs to a standstill.
The church has lost 200 acres at Nakanyonyi in Nabaale Sub County, over 100 acres at Kisowera in Nama Sub County, and about seven acres at Kiwumu in Kyampisi sub-county.
Kgodo’s only regret is that perpetrators are always armed with machetes, arrows, and bows, with which they threaten and harm the bonafide occupants of the land.
While delivering the recent Christmas message, the prelate told journalists that the church is yet to finalize the arrangement of forming local militia groups ready to fight for the church land.
The church has in the past years faced several attacks on its clergy from land grabbers.
Last year, two student lay readers at Grover Wilcox School of Mission Nakanyonyi sustained multiple injuries during an attack by suspected land grabbers.
Students were digging in gardens of the church’s mission training institution.
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