The Universal House of justice has shared with us a copy of
a letter dated January 11, 1980, from the Hands of the Cause of God residing in
the Holy Land to the Hands of the Cause of God throughout the world. We hope
this will allay any concerns the friends may have had over the circumstances
surrounding the death of our beloved Hand of the Cause, Enoch Olinga.
"In all of these sad events it is some consolation to
know that apparently the murder of Mr. Olinga was in no way directly connected
with either religion or politics; in other words no one associated Enoch with
any political factions and this attack on him was not in the nature of an
attack on the Faith itself. Enoch may have been killed just because he was an
affluent businessman and well known because of this and as a 'leader' of the
Baha’is.
“For some years past in Uganda the elimination of prominent
people has been a fixed policy of certain factions and nearly all those who
fell into this category fled the country. Mr. Vuyiya, who arrived in Kampala
from Nairobi three days after the event, writes ' ... staying in the middle of
the town, I had the full effect of the state of near anarchy in Kampala at
night. There were shots every night.' He points out that in the nightly curfew
no one could tell who was roaming about the streets and that every night brought
with it ‘... the news of the murder of yet another family.'
“As nothing worth mentioning, including a large sum of money
which was available in Mr. Olinga's desk, seems to have been stolen from the
home, some people consider that it was one of the acts being regularly
committed by some obscure faction, to create the impression that lawlessness
was rampant and thus discredit the efforts of the new Government to maintain
law and order. In similar killings these 'thugs' have stated they are not
thieves but have come 'only for lives.'
