Kampala — The Serulanda Spiritual Foundation in Rakai should be deregistered because it has contravened the objective for which it was registered and become a profit-making enterprise, a senior official from the lands ministry has said.

The sect was registered under the Trustees Incorporation Act, which specifies that bodies registered under this law should not engage in commercial activities.

The principal registrar of titles, Edward Karibwende, said the Serulanda Nsulo Y'Obulamu (Spring of Life) Spiritual Foundation was on May 26, 1987 registered with the lands ministry under this law, as a voluntary, charitable, spiritual organisation.

Other bodies that have been registered under this law include the Ramgharia Sikh Society and the Church of Uganda, which are registered as trusts.

Prof. Nelson Sewankambo, the chairperson of the commission probing the Serulanda activities, yesterday questioned the legal status of the organisation. He wondered whether the organisation's intent to establish a Free Trade Zone in Rakai as a commercial undertaking, would not be a breach of the law under which the organisation was registered.

Karibwende said: "As a trust, the source of funding must not be from income-generating activities. If you are making profits, you cease to be a trust. It should be registered under the Companies Act."

Karibwende said the sect should register under another law which allows them to carry out business.

"They should stop being a trust and cease to be candidates of this law. The minister can recall the registration and in my view, the registration (of Serulanda) qualifies to be recalled," he said.

Pius Lubega, a former staff of the sect, said its leader, Bambibaaba, was obsessed with money.