Book contents
7 - Revelation
The Last Days of the MRTC
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 April 2013
Summary
‘It is an old maxim of mine that when you have excluded the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth’
Amaisho gareeba, omutima gubeiha. The eyes see, but the soul lies. Stick to the facts
So what did finally become of the MRTC? What took place in the final months of the sect's existence? How did those who were buried in the pit graves die? And why did so many of their members burn to death on Friday 17 March 2000?
I think this is where we came in:
The primary interpreters of events, in the days immediately following the fire, were the Uganda police. Thus, already by Saturday 18 March, the police had ascertained that the MRTC had for long been millenarian in outlook, had recently been preparing for some sort of ‘big event’, had a few days earlier purchased two drums of sulphuric acid, and so on. In addition, their initial analysis report of the fire site had observed that some of the building's windows had been nailed shut at the time of the fire. The report also stated that the bodies inside the building were piled in one spot (a later report by Dr. Kalyemanya described them as having formed a ‘heap’), suggesting that they had all died quite quickly. […]
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- Ghosts of KanunguFertility, Secrecy and Exchange in the Great Lakes of East Africa, pp. 188 - 214Publisher: Boydell & BrewerPrint publication year: 2009