Credonia Mwerinde

Credonia Mwerinde (also spelled Ceredonia Mwerinde; born 30 July 1952–disappeared or died 17 March 2000) is the former high priestess and co-founder of the Movement for the Restoration of the Ten Commandments of God (MRTC), a sect that splintered from the Roman Catholic Church in Uganda. Before founding the movement, she was a shopkeeper, brewer, and a prostitute. She and two other group members approached Joseph Kibweteere in 1989 and said that the Virgin Mary had instructed him to take them in; together, Mwerinde and Kibweteere would found the MRTC in 1989.

Early life Ceredonia Mwerinde was born 30 July 1952, in Bugarama Village in the Ntungamo District of Uganda. She grew up with a humble background. Her father was Paul Kashako, a Mukiga farmer of Catholic faith. Soon after her birth, her family took part in a government relocation program and moved to Kataate Village outside Kanungu.

At the age of 20, Mwerinde married a local man and gave birth to a daughter, Agatha; her husband soon died from an unknown illness. Afterwards, she moved in with one of her brothers, and married again. Her next husband died again soon after, possibly of AIDS. Her third husband, whom she married in 1979, was Eric Mazima, older than her and with substantial wealth. Mwerinde was his seventh wife. By 1984, they experienced severe marital problems because they could not conceive a child together, despite having at least two children previously. She began to suffer severe convulsions, which she attributed to spirits brought on by her husband's other wives. On 24 August 1988, she told Mazima she had received a vision from the Virgin Mary, who she said told her several things, including that she should immediately divorce him. She continued to receive visions for some time.

Mwerinde worked as a barmaid. According to some tellings, before founding the movement she was a shopkeeper, brewer of banana beer, and a prostitute; her actual occupation of being a barmaid is strongly associated locally with prostitution. This telling of events (that she was a prostitute selling alcohol) may have been made up by Kibweteere to make her role seem analogous to that of Mary Magdalene, or made up by those seeking to discredit the group.

Religious leadership Mwerinde was also a member of a religious group devoted to the Virgin Mary. She and two other group members approached Joseph Kibweteere in 1989, and said that the Virgin Mary had instructed him to take them in. Kibweteere did, and he was particularly struck by her claim of a Marian apparition near his home, which related to a vision he himself had five years earlier. Mwerinde was also the source of the sect's predictions of an apocalypse and the pronouncements that salvation could only be found with the Virgin Mary's messages.

The Movement grew rapidly, and at its height membership was estimated as being between 5,000 and 6,000.