Pastor Wars 3: Another installment!

Hi.

Yeah, am still alive. Had taken a leave of absence from the blogosphere, … still absent, but cant help surfacing with the pastor wars taking another turn. Here is the article….

Indeed, as Ssempa is quoted saying, sad days for some…

 

gug

 

PS, first from Monitor, then the view from the New Vision! Which incidentally, is the government paper. And from me, a hearty laugh. Would be better if the witch hunt is not continuing. Sigh, cant have everything, can one?

 

Sodomy row: CID summons pastors

ANDREW BAGALA

 

Kampala

 

The Police Criminal Investigations Directorate yesterday summoned five pastors on allegations that they set up Pastor Robert Kayanja in a sodomy scandal.

 

CID Director Edward Ochom said at a press conference that Pastors Martin Ssempa of Makerere Community Church, Solomon Male of Arise for Christ, Michael Kyazze, Annet Kyomuhendo and Bob Kayiiira of Omega Healing Centre are expected at CID headquarters in Kibuli today, where they will be interrogated by detectives.

 

The summons come after CID investigated cases in which seven people including; Samson Mukisa, James Ntwatwa, Ronny Mutebi, David Mukalazi, Akansiime and Robinson Matovu alleged to have been sodomised by Pastor Kayanja while they were serving in his church at Rubaga Miracle Cathedral.

 

Mr Ochom said the cases were found to be false and the Police had summoned the pastors on allegations of giving false information contrary to section 115 of the Penal Code and false swearing contrary to section 100 of the Penal Code.

 “We are going to take tough measures against people who tell lies to the Police because they put the Police credibility to question,” Mr Ochom said.

The development is likely to turn tables with Pastor Kayanja, who recently made a big donation to the police force  – renovating Old Kampala Station, moving from defendant to complainant and the Pastors who have been accusing him of sodomy becoming the defendants.

 

The CID boss’ position on the matter, stems from a Police statement by Mr Mukisa on February 7, alleging that he was an orphan who sought refuge at Pastor Kayanja’s church but was sodomised. He also swore an affidavit to that effect.

Police carried out medical examinations, which indicated the man was not sodomised but a separate independent examination by a doctor at Mulago Hospital did not rule out sodomy. “We have found out that his (Mukisa’s) mother is alive contrary to the first statement he made and his father isn’t Richard Bulega as he alleged but is Richard Muyingo,” Mr Ochom said yesterday.

 

CID officials said Mr Mukisa has never been part of Kayanja’s church.

But Mukisa yesterday said the CID boss had told lies about him. He also alleged to have been forced by the Police to sign a statement at gun point. “Both of my parents are dead. I am ready to prove all I have said,” Mr Mukisa said in an interview with Daily Monitor.

 

Both Pastors Male and Ssempa yesterday confirmed receiving the summons. Pastor Ssempa described the development as a “sad one for those helping victims of sodomy”. Daily Monitor couldn’t reach the other pastors.

 

But the Pastors summoned by CID and particularly Pastor Male have accused the Police of acting suspiciously in the investigation. “Mukisa reported his case to the Police in February. Later, we read that Kayanja had offered to renovate Old Kampala Police Station … If your conscience is really clear, why do you send dummies to people investigating you? Why not allow them to investigate and find you innocent?” Pastor Male said in an interview with the Sunday Vision.

 

 

And from New Vision

 

Police clear Pastor Kayanja of sodomy

Sunday, 17th May, 2009      

By Patrick Jaramogi

 

THE POLICE yesterday described allegations of sodomy against Pastor Robert Kayanja of Rubaga Miracle Centre as “baseless”, “fabricated” and “full of lies”.

 

“We have been carrying out investigations following allegations of sodomy by Pastor Robert Kayanja. The allegations were grave because they involved the church, but the revelations were unbelievable,” said Edward Ochom, the Director of Criminal Investigations Directorate (CID), at a press conference at his headquarters in Kibuli.

 

“Pastor Kayanja has no case because all six complainants who reported to the Police have retracted their complaints, saying they were set up by some pastors. We shall proceed with the case when any other person comes up with a complaint.”

 

The Police listed Samson Mukisa, David Mukalazi, Brian Ntwata, Robson Matovu, Ronnie Mutebi and Brian Ankansima as people who have since retracted their statements.

 

Ochom warned of stern measures against people who tell lies to the Police.

“These people have been summoned to explain.”

 

He listed those summoned as pastors Martin Ssempa of Makerere University Community Church; Michael Kyazze, Robert Kayiira and Lendo Anita Kyomuhendo of Omega Healing Centre; and Solomon Male.

 

“We want them at the CID headquarters today. If they don’t respond, we shall arrest them,” Ochom warned.

 

According to Ochom, Mukisa, the 19-year-old boy who alleged he was sodomised by Kayanja in a hotel, confessed that he had been used.

 

“When our senior detectives called Mukisa for interrogation, he confessed that what he swore in the affidavit were lies. Mukisa said that he was paid sh50,000 per month to damage Pastor Kayanja,” said Ochom.

 

However, Mukisa at a press conference convened by Male on Saturday said he had been forced by CID officers to retract his earlier statements at gun point.

 

“I was put at gunpoint and forced to retract and sign a new statement. I feared for my life,” he told journalists. Mukisa is being accommodated by Omega Healing Centre in Namasuba.

 

In his affidavit, presented by Kaggwa and Company Advocates, Mukisa alleged that he was heading a music group at Kayanja’s ministry for street children which won a music competition and that after the party, Kayanja drove him to an unknown hotel and sodomised him.

 

“Mukisa alleged that his anus was shattered and that Kayanja brought a female doctor who stitched it. When we took him for medical examination, the Police surgeon found that his anus was intact and had never been stitched,” said Ochom.

 

He said investigations found out that Mukisa had never been taken to the children’s home.

 

“In his affidavit he said that his father was the late Richard Bulega of Kitende in Kajjansi and that his mother, Oliver Nansubuga, died in 2008. But when we interrogated him, he said his father was Richard Muyingo and his mother is still alive.”

 

“Mukisa later told us that he was being used by some pastors.”

 

Ochom vowed that the Police would not tolerate lies by church leaders.

 

“We are not going to allow people who are not credible to lead institutions like the church. The church is an institution of high morals.”

 

The conflict between rival Pentecostal churches, which compete for members, ‘sowing’ money and funds from US churches, has deepened in recent weeks, with pastors accusing each other of homosexuality, kidnap and bribing people to frame them.