Ugandan church-goers asked for ID after World Cup bombings

NAIROBI, Kenya (RNS/ENInews) Ugandan church leaders are asking Christians to produce identity cards and agree to security checks before entering some churches after two terrorist attacks at World Cup viewing parties left more than 70 people dead. “We are taking these new measures to ensure that the worshippers are safe. We do not want the […]

NAIROBI, Kenya (RNS/ENInews) Ugandan church leaders are asking Christians to produce identity cards and agree to security checks before entering some churches after two terrorist attacks at World Cup viewing parties left more than 70 people dead.

“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.

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 World Cup soccer championship.


Al-Shabab, 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, cameras and lights.

The security measures for churches are intended for high-risk targets, but no churches will be forced to implement the checks.

“Worshippers have been cooperating. This is for their good. Everyone was shocked by the attack,” Ntagali said.

“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, told Uganda’s Daily Monitor newspaper.

Church leaders say they back the government’s call for new security precautions, which include having police and private guards patrolling church sanctuaries during services.


Some churches opened only one door for worshippers to enter the building but later opened a second door for exiting. Police have been seen patrolling the bigger churches in Kampala.

In other security measures, all-night prayer rallies and crusades, which are popular with Pentecostal and evangelical churches, will now end at midnight.

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