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.