By Isolde Doubell
30/10/2025
UGANDA’S HISTORY IS A TESTAMENT TO THE POWER OF PRAYER
Uganda lies at the heart of Africa, north of Lake Victoria and bordered by Rwanda, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, South Sudan, Tanzania and Kenya. Christianity came to Uganda much later than to its neighbouring countries, by way of British missionaries in 1877. King Mutesa the First welcomed the missionaries, hoping he would gain military and political support to resist Egyptian expansion. However, his son, King Mwanga, became fearful as the Christian community grew rapidly. According to Britannica, 45 Christians were killed on King Mwanga’s orders on 3 June 1886. The martyrs, who walked to their execution singing hymns and praying for their enemies, deeply moved onlookers, and many turned to Christ. Their deaths left a powerful impression that Christianity was not merely a foreign faith but was real and entrenched enough for African people to die for it. Today, 3 June is a public holiday in Uganda, and thousands of people from across East Africa gather at the site to honour the martyrs’ courage, sacrifice and steadfast faith. Uganda has the highest proportion of Christians in Africa, with 84% identifying as Christian — 34% of whom are evangelical.
History
The Kingdom of Buganda, founded in the late 14th century by the Ganda people, became the dominant kingdom in the region by the 19th century. Although the influence of Islam and Christianity were both growing, Christianity emerged stronger as Uganda became a British protectorate in 1900. The country gained its independence in 1962 and, in the first election, Milton Obote was voted prime minister. Buganda, still the largest of Uganda’s traditional kingdoms, strove for autonomy, but this brought them into conflict with Obote. In 1966 he sent the army under Idi Amin to attack King Mutesa the Second’s palace, forcing him into exile. Obote then introduced a new constitution, abolishing Uganda’s kingdoms and making himself executive president. (The kingdoms were reinstated in 1993 under President Museveni.)
Obote’s growing dependence on the military to subdue his opponents bred resentment and enabled Amin to gain power, leading to Obote’s overthrow in a 1971 coup. Idi Amin was not the unifying force many hoped he would be. He turned out to be one of the most brutal dictators, known as the “Butcher of Uganda”. He also encouraged the Islamisation of the country. In 1972 he expelled all Asians, numbering between 50,000 and 70,000, resulting in a collapse of the economy as manufacturing, agriculture and commerce came to a halt without the appropriate resources to support them. According to Britannica, most people in the countryside were able to survive because the fertility of Uganda’s soil allowed them to continue growing food, but a black market developed which affected the moral fibre of the nation. Amin ordered the torture and murder of approximately 300,000 Ugandans. He particularly persecuted Christians, and churches were severely restricted. He also reversed Uganda’s amicable relations with Israel. In 1978 he ordered an attack on Tanzania, but the Tanzanian troops, aided by Ugandan exiles, gained the upper hand, and Amin had to flee.
Obote served another term as president from 1980–1985. This was a time when Christians were so persecuted by the regime that they had to flee to the jungles for fear of their lives. Uganda also faced brutal and demonic rebel activity from the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA), led by Joseph Kony, for seventeen years during the 1990s and 2000s. The LRA abducted and enslaved tens of thousands of children, forcing them to fight as soldiers in its war against the government. Its attacks — including murder, rape and mutilation — terrorised northern Uganda and displaced over a million people. Despite several failed peace talks and a joint military operation with neighbouring countries, Kony escaped, and the LRA, although much weakened, continued to commit violent acts across Central Africa.
Testimonies and revival
Carole Ward, founder of Favor International, felt called by God to go to Gulu in northern Uganda during the Kony wars after she prayed to be sent “where no one wants to go.” She began her ministry through fasting and prayer, learning spiritual warfare. Her testimony describes how God mobilised others around her to join in prayer and fasting to break spiritual strongholds in the region.
At the beginning of the 1990s, the country was faced with a massive onslaught of HIV/AIDS. Uganda was the worst-hit country in the world. Predictions were that within ten years a third of the population would be dead. Dr John Mulinde, international speaker on prayer and missions from World Trumpet Church, said at the Light Up Uganda for Jesus Conference in May this year: “During a prayer meeting, God gave us a prophetic word that we had to humble ourselves and pray and that we could take our eyes off the crisis because He would deal with it. It will become a testimony. People will come from other nations to Uganda to ask how we managed it. That is exactly what happened. In the early 1990s and 2000s HIV/Aids was reversed in Uganda as the people sought the Lord. The infected cases were reduced from around 25% in 1990s to 5.8% in 2022. The government and churches worked to achieve this reduction, largely on a platform of abstinence and fidelity. Please pray with us that all ground gained in this battle might be consolidated by right belief and right lifestyles.”
Uganda’s current president, Yoweri Museveni, now eighty, has been in office since 1986 after leading a guerrilla war that toppled Milton Obote’s regime. He has won multiple elections, many of which are disputed. He is accused of keeping an iron grip on power by making constitutional changes to remove both term and age limits, allowing him to remain in power for nearly 40 years. Uganda is set to hold its next election in January 2026. However, President Museveni and his wife, Janet, have supported the Christian community of Uganda throughout his presidency. There was even a time in the late nineties when the president handed over the flag of Uganda to the country’s intercessors, emphasising the important role they play in the country’s destiny. At the 50th anniversary of Uganda’s independence in 2012, President Museveni publicly repented of his own sins and those of the nation, asking God for His forgiveness and blessing.
Uganda’s history of crises has often driven believers to desperate prayer. Dr John Mulinde observes that the nation learned intercession through great suffering. However, after God answers prayer, people often relax until the next crisis, sparking fresh waves of intercession. The country has experienced several revivals, most notably the East African Revival, beginning in the 1930s when Simeon Nsibambi, the son of a chief who was dissatisfied with empty religion, and Jo Church, a medical missionary from Rwanda, were filled by the Holy Spirit during a prayer meeting. From there, a revival was born, transforming countless lives and shaping the whole East African Christian legacy. This revival was marked by love and fellowship regardless of class, race, language, gender or tribe. From its low-key beginnings in Rwanda and Uganda in the mid-1930s, the revival became an international movement whose impact spread far beyond Africa, to many countries in Europe, and even to Brazil and Israel. Festo Kivengere became the best-known African evangelist of that time and joined the Billy Graham evangelistic team for several campaigns.
However, it is not only in years past that God has moved in Uganda. Brother John Bosco Tuli, director of Elwa Sunrise School in Uganda, says there is currently a prayer network of intercessors for Uganda. “The group has an online presence of up to 993 members. It is active and very strategic in their prayers following the leading of the Holy Spirit. They have organised a Prayer Patrol that is taking place from 23 October to 20 November 2025 with the objective to ‘run to and fro throughout the nation to see, to know and to seek the Lord. The Lord is sending us as ordinary men with a prophetic mandate to patrol the land of Uganda to see, to know, and seek for men of truth, righteousness and justice in this season…The Lord has helped us understand that our generation is in the season of God’s visitation to our country, but also to Africa. God wants us as the Church to take a priestly and kingly responsibility to disciple our families, clans, ethnic peoples and nation to align with our path of destiny’.”
Pastor Moses Apunyu, a pastor in northern Uganda, says: “The Church in Uganda remains strong and vibrant, and intercessors continue to play a vital role in sustaining the spiritual life of the nation. Many communities still rely heavily on prayer and faithful ministry, and testimonies of God’s work in our country are abundant. Recently, one of our church members who was seriously ill was healed through prayer, and a struggling family managed to start a small business that improved their situation. While grateful for God’s blessings, Christians in Uganda continue to face challenges including political and social pressures, economic hardship, limited religious freedom, and a need for spiritual support and discipleship.”
Muslims and persecution
Radical Islamic groups are persecuting Christians in the country, especially in the north-west and south-east border areas. The massacre at Mpondwe-Lhubiriha Secondary School in June 2023, where militias killed over 40 Christians, shocked the nation. Furthermore, Islamic radicalism is gaining a foothold in the social fabric of eastern Uganda, where Christian communities are frequently subjected to mob violence, and converts from Islam are particularly targeted. According to Joshua Project, 9.4% of Ugandans are Muslim, although the Muslim community claims this number is much higher. Uganda’s parliament has passed Islamic banking laws, which favour Islamic projects, and Arab countries also continue to invest significant resources into furthering Muslim interests in the country. Despite the risks, a few churches in Uganda are reaching out to their neighbours and are training leaders to share the gospel with Muslims and to care for the persecuted.
May we, as Christians in Uganda and around the world, be encouraged by the example of Kefa Sempangi, founder of the Redeemed Church of Kampala. He faced persecution under Idi Amin’s regime but was miraculously spared when would-be assassins repented and helped him escape. After Amin’s fall, Sempangi returned to Uganda, dedicating himself to rebuilding the Church, serving in parliament, and advocating for orphaned street children. In his book A Distant Grief, he writes:
“The truth is that either you pray, or you become a prey. Certainly, those who call upon the Lord shall be saved. Miracles are the deliberate acts of God provoked by the desperate faith and prayers of men. Indeed there is no intervention without intercession. God destroys the resistance when we cry out to Him for assistance. Truly, prayer changes things!”
Please join us in prayer:
- Please pray for the Prayer Patrol that is taking place from 23 October to 20 November 2025 (see above): that people will experience God’s direction and truth at this time as they seek the Lord.
- Pray for the elections taking place in January 2026: that a godly man will be elected and that there will be no electoral irregularities.
- Pray for persecuted Christians in Muslim areas — that they will be protected and wise in how to handle their enemies so that these people will come to Christ.
- Pray for the Ugandan Church: that they will be humble and filled with the Holy Spirit — pure, strong and mission-minded.
- According to Operation World, nearly half of all Ugandans are under sixteen. Pray for youth discipleship — that the Church will produce a generation that truly knows and loves the Lord.
- Pray for the people without Bibles — those in rural areas who can’t afford one, those who speak tribal dialects or those who are illiterate — that the Gospel will be available to everyone.
https://churchofuganda.org/about-us/
https://hormdevotional.wordpress.com/2022/01/24/january-24-prayer-changes-things/
https://www.joshuaproject.net/countries/UG
https://operationworld.org/prayer-calendar/11-29/
https://www.persecution.com/globalprayerguide/uganda/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XbV9chX2KDk
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SDAi_FCgyE0 (LIGHT UP UGANDA FOR CHRIST 2025 – DR. JOHN W. MULINDE)
https://www.britannica.com/topic/history-of-Uganda
https://www.bu.edu/missiology/missionary-biography/c-d/church-john-edward-1899-1989/
