July 23, 2010
By Fredrick Nzwili

NAIROBI – Church leaders in Uganda are asking Christians to produce an identity card and agree to security searches before entering some church buildings for worship, after two bomb attacks in the capital in mid-July in which more than 70 people died.

"We are taking these new measures to ensure that the worshippers are safe. We do not want the wrong people to enter into our churches," Anglican Bishop Stanley Ntagali of the Masindi-Kitara diocese told ENInews on July 19 in a telephone interview.

The security measures follow bomb attacks on July 11 in Kampala at a rugby club and an Ethiopian restaurant, where people were watching the final match of the soccer World Cup being played in Johannesburg, South Africa.

Al-Shabaab, a radical Somali Islamic group, claimed responsibility for the blasts and said there would be more attacks.

The Ugandan government has urged owners of buildings and other public facilities, including churches, to ensure their premises have adequate security measures, such as guards, metal detectors, CCTV cameras and lights.

The security measures for churches are intended for people seen to be more at risk, especially those in towns and cities. Still, no church will be forced to implement the checks.

"Worshippers have been cooperating. This is for their good. Everyone was shocked by the attack," Ntagali said, when he was asked whether the measures would interfere with religious freedom, and keep away some worshippers.

"We are going to register our church members and provide them with proper identity cards. No stranger will be allowed to attend any prayer session," Pastor David Kiganda, vice chairperson of the Uganda National Fellowship of Born-Again Churches, was quoted as saying by Uganda's Daily Monitor newspaper on July 16.

Church leaders in the East African country say they back the government's call for new security precautions, which will also include having police and private guards patrolling church sanctuaries during services.

On Sunday, July 18, some churches opened only one door to facilitate the screening of the worshippers but later opened a second door to allow worshippers to exit from the services. Police were seen patrolling the bigger churches in Kampala.

In other security measures, overnight prayers and crusades, popular with Pentecostal and Evangelical churches, will now end at midnight.

Episcopal News Service
Ecumenical News International