Dan Zoreka was the second Bishop of Kinkiizi Anglican Diocese, in southwestern Uganda. He has been the prelate of the diocese for the past 14 years. Recently, our writer, Kefa Senoga, travelled to the diocese and had a chat with the alumnus of Uganda Christian University.
Bishop Dan Zoreka of Kinkiizi Anglican Diocese in Uganda never expected to serve the Lord as a cleric. Throughout his childhood, he admired doctors and wanted to be one. However, financial challenges forced him to change career direction.
In 1977, Zoreka sat his Primary Leaving Examinations (PLE), where he earned a First Grade, and an admission into Mbarara High School. However, he could not afford the school fees. He thus had to repeat Primary Seven as he looked for money for his tuition in Senior One. At the time, one was not eligible for admission into Senior One using results more than a year old.
The following year, Zoreka again passed his PLE exams, earning admission into Nyakasura School. Again, he failed to join the school because of lack of tuition.
Zoreka had been paying his own school fees from Primary Three. He says his father was a polygamous man with six wives, so he could not afford fees for all his children.
“I used to vend banana fiber every Friday. I would sell them to the butchers. It is from that money that I would pay my school fees,” Zoreka explained during an interview he granted Uganda Partners at his diocese in southwestern Uganda.
As a result of the failure to meet the financial requirements for secondary school study, he said he even considered giving up on education.
“But in 1979, I decided to repeat for the third time. That’s when my class teacher advised me to opt for teacher training colleges, which offered free education.”
He thus enrolled at St. Augustine’s Teacher Training College in western Uganda to pursue a teaching certificate course. For the four years he studied the course, he returned home only once. Despite studying the course on a bursary, Zoreka needed extra money for upkeep. He thus did menial jobs at the school, and in the community, from which he earned a wage.
“I did work such as cleaning the school compound and harvesting tea in the community; I was a well-known casual laborer in the area.”
After completing his course, Zoreka was employed by the government of Uganda in 1985 as a teacher, but he spent a year without receiving salary. That was the time the country was facing civil strife; hence many public servants were not receiving their salaries.
In 1986, Zoreka was tempted to switch professions. The government was recruiting soldiers, so Zoreka applied to train as one.
“I registered my name and we were instructed to return the next morning at 6:00 a.m. to be transported to another district where the training was to take place. Unfortunately, I drank too much alcohol that night and overslept. By the time I woke up, the team had already left,” he recalls.
In 1987, Bishop Zoreka made another attempt to join the security forces, this time the Uganda Police. However, after presenting his academic certificates, the recruiting officer informed him that the government needed teachers more, so they couldn’t allow him to join the Police.
Still, Zoreka left teaching and started to work as a lumberjack, a job he did for a year, before returning to teaching.
In 1989, when a call for lay readers was announced in their diocese, Zoreka’s mother, a staunch Christian, pressured him to enroll for the course. Though it was against his wishes, he did it to honor his mother’s desire. A lay reader is a person licensed by a bishop to conduct religious services other than the Eucharist.
“I felt like there was no life in the church at the time. I enjoyed nights of dancing, discos, and drinking alcohol,” Zoreka says.
“Even as I sat the interview, I had three cigarettes in my pockets; just the night before, I had spent the evening at the bar drinking. I arrived at the interview with a hangover. If I had been thoroughly checked, probably I would have been disqualified.”
And even after admission, his bad habits followed him. “We would sneak out of the dormitory during our training, to look for alcohol in a nearby town. It was only by God’s grace that we were not caught.”
In 1990, Zoreka gave his life to Christ, completely turning his back to smoking and drinking alcohol. He thus became a deacon in 1998 and a priest in 1999.
Upon being ordained a deacon, Zoreka was posted to the cathedral/diocesan headquarters as a curate. Following his priesting in 1999, the bishop at the time, John Ntegyerize, assigned him to the Nyarugunda Parish in Kinkiizi diocese, southwestern Uganda, where he served for one year as the parish priest. It was during his time there that he met Florah Arinaitwe, whom he married the following year.
“We got married on Wednesday August 30, and I reported to UCU to pursue a degree course the following week, on Monday, with my wife.”
At UCU, there was a designated area for married theology students. Unfortunately, when he arrived, all the houses were already occupied.
As a result, Zoreka and his wife occupied the garage of the Rev. Prof Olivia Nasaka Bbanja, who was a lecturer at the Bishop Tucker Theological College at the time. Banja is now the Vice Chancellor of Ndejje University. The garage was the couple’s honeymoon venue, after which Florah returned to their home in Kanungu.
Zoreka served the church in various capacities, eventually being elected the second Bishop of Kinkiizi Anglican Diocese in 2015. He hopes to retire from active service in two years. Anglican bishops in Uganda retire from service when they clock 65 years.
As a bishop, Zoreka has earned a reputation as a developmental leader. The Rev. Bob Mbabazi, the head of communications at Kinkiizi Diocese, said the bishop has focused on building and enhancing infrastructure for various church projects, such as the clergy residence, schools, hospitals, and commercial buildings, including one in Kampala city.
According to Mbabazi, the bishop has lobbied for partnerships with various stakeholders, including Compassion International, which has established six child development centers across the diocese, all overseen by the church.
Florah and Zoreka have four children — the firstborn, is pursuing a degree course at UCU and the second born, is in secondary school at Mengo SS. The third born, is in Primary Four while the youngest, is in Primary Three, at Kabale Primary School.
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