Kampala — LEADERS of the Rakai-based Sserulanda Spiritual foundation have denied claims that they are a cult. They say they are a free trade zone aimed at attracting investments to create prosperity for the rural people.

The governor of the Sseesamirembe Eco-city Lake Victoria Free Trade Zone Beenunula Eyeenunula and presidential adviser on land matters Gertrude Njuba, said their religious belief should be differentiated from the project.

The duo, who visited The New Vision offices on Thursday, said the project, which started in 1975, aims at building roads, residences, boreholes, schools and health centres for over 2,000 people and foreign investors who will settle in the "Universal Spiritual City".

However, they admit that the project concept was hatched by their spiritual leader, Bambi Baaba, who wields immense power over his followers as a "god in spiritual form".

Bambi Baaba is currently living in Fairfax, Virginia, US.

President Yoweri Museveni recently set up a commission of inquiry into Sserulanda's activities, after concerns from other churches that claimed they were a cult.

Njuba said: "We can't fear the probe because there is nothing to hide. They come at night to investigate, but they find people in their beds, and when they wake up in the morning, they go back to their gardens."

But the duo stress that their project is being sabotaged by people who want to start up free trade zones, citing the Namanve Industrial Park.

Eyeenunula boasts of being a private investor, "one of the few blacks who made it on Wall Street (the largest stock market in the world) and came back to invest in his country".

Eyeenunula says similar projects have been undertaken in Dubai, Mauritius, Tinapa, Nigeria, South Asia and China. "When an investment project comes into the country, why should the faith of the investors be brought to the fore?" he asked. He said they came to Uganda because it is strategically located and if such projects are replicated, they will prevent rural to urban migration.

"We have gone to Gulu and West Nile. Special economic zones are areas with fiscal incentives where you allow investors in a fixed area to enjoy exemptions to bring development to areas," Eyeenunula said.

"You confine them (investors) in an area and move them away from the capital city. If we have it in Rakai and other rural areas, why would we have social tensions in Kampala," he asked.

He said free zones are built with special charters that define the rules for international community and local communities to interact, live, work together.