Police find pastor accused of sodomy innocent but to charge his accusers

Police get Kayanja off the hook; charge pastors

Chris Obore

Kampala

Police have cleared Pastor Robert Kayanja of Miracle Centre Cathedral of sodomy allegations. Instead, the Police have written to the Director of Public Prosecutions urging him to brings charges against four pastors who reportedly assisted some people to allege that Pastor Kayanja had sodomised them.

According to the report entitled Sodomy cases against Pastor Kayanja, a copy of which Sunday Monitor has obtained, there is no evidence to pin Pastor Kayanja.
The police investigators concluded thus: “In each of the complaints of sodomy against Pastor Robert Kayanja, the investigations did not reveal any evidence of such offence(s) committed. Further, following medical examination of the complainants, the Police surgeon did not find any evidence of sodomy.”

The report furthers states that pastors Martin Sempa, Moses Solomon Male, Michael Kyazze, Felix Semujju and Bo Kayiira reportedly influenced Pastor Kayanja’s accusers.
The Police say one of the complainants Samson Mukisa used pseudo names.
“The complainant’s real name is not Samson Mukisa as alleged in the affidavit, he is Musasizi Robert Kaliba. He has never been a member of Miracle Centre and a leader of Music Group ‘A’ and there is no Music Group ‘A’ at Miracle Centre Rubaga,” reads the police report.

The police say all the complainants retracted their earlier statements against Pastor Kayanja saying that they had been incited by the four pastors to wrongly accuse Kayanja.
“In a statement dated 15th and 20th May 2009 Mukisa retracted the allegation indicating he had not been sodomised by Pastor Kayanja but was influenced by Pastors Male, Kayira, Kyazze, Sempa and Semujju as to make the allegations,” reads the report.

“I, therefore, recommend that the persons who conspired and mobilised the complainants to make false allegations against Pastor Robert Kayanja be charged with the offence of conspiracy to injure the reputation of Pastor Kayanja, contrary to Section 392(b) of the Penal Code Act,” reads the report prepared by D/SP Grace Akullo.

Ms Akullo who is the Acting Commissioner for General Crimes also wrote: “I further recommend that the persons who were so mobilised be retained as witnesses in this case.”
The police also say Pastor Kayira and Pastor Kyazze had “planned to trespass in the Rubaga based Miracle Centre Cathedral with intent to steal property of the Miracle Centre Rubaga.”

They say Pastor Kayira was arrested from within Miracle Centre Rubaga area in company of a motorcycle rider one Seremba Gadafi whom he had hired from Namasuba.
However, the accused pastors sounded unbothered yesterday. “I have not yet seen the report but it was expected. The investigative machinery of Police is controlled by people who shield criminals,” said Pastor Male.

“The police have actually worked for Kayanja but we will be happy to be in the dock and prove that Police and Kayanja are the same,” he added.
Early this year, Pastor Kayanja paid for the sprucing up of Old Kampala Police Station in a move some people believe was to soften the ground for himself ahead of the homo scandal.
And another pastor, Martin Sempa said yesterday that “we have had low hope in the capacity of Police to be unbiased.”

“This is a travesty of justice. Even before they examined the statement of Kayanja, they had declared him innocent,” said Pastor Sempa.
He said they were shocked that police would stoop so low as to protect a powerful individual and not the victims.

“This case had drama, there were fake kidnaps and the boys were taken through a tortuous process,” he said. Pastor Ssempa however revealed that they had several other sodomy victims whom they will present to court as witnesses. He said they feared to present the victims to police because they had taken sides with Pastor Kayanja.

“Police itself is under investigation; its Police on trial,” he said adding that: “Police buildings were renovated by Robert Kayanja.” The pastors are furious that the police were hindering the fight against sexual abuse in the Church.
They said Good Samaritans were now being prosecuted for helping victims and have also called upon parents and other Church leaders to stand firm in the fight against sodomy which is a criminal offence under Uganda’s laws.

PASTORS’ SODOMY REPORT READY-UHRC

By HENRY MULINDWA

The Uganda Human Rights Commission is soon releasing its report into allegations that some pastors practice sodomy.According to commissioner Agaba Maguru, the body had already completed the biggest percentage of its investigations against bum shafting individuals mostly pastors, and that soon its report is going to be handed over to parliament.Appearing before the parliamentary legal committee chaired by Stephen Tashobya last night, Agaba said that sodomy had dominated almost the entire desk of the commission as one of the major cases registered against children’s rights.

“We have received several cases of child rights abuses. Sodomy is taking a centre stage. We have already interviewed the victims and the alleged culprits. We have interviewed the police and many pastors. Soon we are going to release our report,” he said.Agaba was however, cagey on revealing particular culprits that had been interrogated, but said many pastors were interrogated.This comes at a time when Miracle Cathedral Pastor Robert Kayanja is currently facing intense investigations after allegations of surfing bums of his flock, while another pastor Kiweweesi was also accused of the same vice.

Meanwhile, the commission is facing closure of all its regional offices unless government moves swiftly to allocate dime to finance the office rent of the commission’s regional offices across the country.UHRC secretary Gordon Mwesigye informed the committee that all donors have frozen their accounts that were being used to fund the regional office’s rental fees. He said that despite such a development, government has not allocated even a single penny for this activity. “We conduct our business through regional offices and we want to open up new ones. The donors have already warned us that they are not going to pay rent for our regional offices as they have been doing. The donors have been funding the tribunals, investigations and rental fees and if they pull out, there is going to be a real crisis,” Mwesigye said.The committee now wants government to consider this as a matter of top priority by allocating Shs1.7bn for this project.
In another development the Uganda Muslim Women Association on D’awa and development last night petitioned the deputy speaker Rebecca Kadaga calling for a tough law on sodomachists, lesbians and ritual murderers. The group’s head Hajati Kakaire Faridah said the group had also launched a 6-months country-wide campaign against bum shafters and ritual murderers.