Witch doctor turns to Christ at 3rd anniversary of 77 Days of Glory, 18th September, 2019 (Courtesy Photo.)
For the last 30 years Ali Kirunda has been practicing witchcraft of the highest order from Kangulumira subcounty in Kayunga, a district in Central Uganda.
This catastrophic chapter however came to an end on Wednesday night when Kirunda decided to give his life to Christ during a Pentecostal revival meeting code named ’77 Days of Glory’ hosted at Miracle Centre Cathedral – Rubaga close to the capital Kampala.
Supported by his son Ali Kakaire, Kirunda denounced witchcraft and burnt his fetishes.
“I’ve seen witchcraft portions right from the start of the first phase of this revival but I’ve never seen anything like this,” Robert Kayanja, the lead Pastor of Miracle Centre Cathedral remarked in a release on Thursday.
The Church said Ali Kakaire brought his father dressed in backcloth, smoking pipe, with a featherless hen which, despite their efforts to kill it, failed to die, along with a huge cobra.
“Back then, I would pray for people and they could manifest into different animals, hiss like snakes and all sorts of creatures but I’ve never seen a live cobra that huge brought to Church,” Pastor Robert Kayanja said.
“As I prayed for the old man, the hen kept running away in a just one direction tied with charms in its neck. Until I cut off the charms from the man himself and the hen. As we poured the first bottle of petrol in the water can where the cobra, it remained alive until after the second bottle of petrol and we had to burn it completely,” Pastor Robert Kayanja said.
According to the Church, Kirunda has never bathed for over 30 years of his life.
“The spirits refused him to bathe, he could only pour some water on himself whenever he went to the lake which is believed to be water from the spirits,” they said.
In 2010, a report by US-based Pew Research Centre, titled ‘Tolerance and Tension: Islam and Christianity in Sub-Saharan Africa’, claimed that about six million people in Uganda believe in witchcraft or the protective power of sacrifices to spirits or ancestors.
Furthermore, in his recent book ‘Re-addressing the Imbalance’, Pastor Kayanja explained how the bondage of witchcraft is one of the worst that could ever hold any man or even an entire nation down.
He highlighted witchcraft is an enemy of the gospel and a terrible hinderance to development and progress of any country that needs to be dealt away with.
He explained that it “is important that we are free, before we can effectively preach freedom.”
“Africa’s freedom from bondage requires an awakening and total transformation of the mind and the way we do things. There is a need for us to hear God every step of the way. We must be identified with God the way the Israelis were when God said, “Let MY people go.”” Pastor Kayanja wrote.
