Pastor rapes, impregnates his daughter
http://www.ugandaobserver.com/new/news/news200712201.php
December 20, 2007
By Richard M. Kavuma
WEEKLY OBSERVER
A Kampala preacher who allegedly raped and impregnated his 16-year-old daughter says jealous pastors simply want to bring him down.
The girl produced a baby boy who made 6 months this week.
In a bizarre twist, the mother of his abused girl claims that she herself was forced into sex by the same pastor, resulting in the conception of Lucia (real name withheld).
Pastor Herbert Bugembe, 33, of the defunct Great Commission Christian Centre in Bweyogerere, is said to have raped Lucia, now 17, in Nairobi last year.
Lucia’s mother, Joyce, claims that she conceived her daughter after Bugembe forcibly had sex with her in 1989.
At that time, both Bugembe and Joyce were only 15, the same age Lucia was when she was allegedly raped by her father.
Under Chapter 14 of the Penal Code Act, both rape and defilement carry a maximum death penalty. Incest, which is sexual intercourse with a blood-relative, is punishable by up to seven years. If the person with whom the incest was committed is below 18, a culprit faces life imprisonment.
Bugembe this week calmly denied Lucia’s accusations in a two-hour interview outside his house in Mutungo, charging that some pastors were trying to tarnish his name. He said he had temporarily put his church on hold because of the problems associated with Lucia.
But this newspaper has seen signed documents where Bugembe admits that he “attempted” to sexually assault his daughter. In another document signed five months ago, Bugembe admitted being the father of his daughter’s child, who made six months on Monday.
The Weekly Observer has learnt that Bugembe was reported to the Police CID in Kampala by a child-rights organisation in September. But no action has been taken so far, reportedly because the case is complicated by the fact that the alleged crime was committed in another country.
Long story
Spanning two decades and two countries, the story starts in Jinja in 1989. Joyce was working as house-girl at the home of Bugembe’s elder sister, Sarah. Bugembe, then 15, was living with the family.
In an interview at her two-room rented home in Kayunga last week, Joyce said Bugembe forcibly had sex with her that year. By the time she found out that she was pregnant, she had lost her house-girl’s job and returned to Kayunga. She went on to deliver Lucia but Bugembe denied that he was the father.
On his part, Bugembe told The Weekly Observer that “like any young man then”, he “played around” with Joyce “about 20 years ago”. As to whether he was the father of Lucia, Bugembe said the matter would be resolved by a DNA test, which he was ready to pay for. He did not say why that test has never been taken.
Joyce, now a married mother of seven, says that Bugembe’s relatives, persuaded by a resemblance between him and the baby, accepted Lucia and lived with her at various times. Aged 7, she was taken in by Bugembe’s sister called Prosy who lived in Nsambya. It was not until she was 14 that she moved to Mutungo Zone 6, where her father Bugembe lives with his wife and six children.
Father’s care
What happened thereafter is not clear and depends on who you talk to. Lucia says she was mistreated by both her father and step-mother. At one point she ran away and went to live with her mother in Kayunga. On other occasions, she either took refuge at a teacher’s house or a Local Councillor’s home, because Bugembe allegedly wanted to rape her.
In response to these allegations, Bugembe calls Lucia a liar who has teamed up with rival pastors to bring him down. Asked to name and shame these jealous pastors, Bugembe said he had not kept their names, as that would create lasting enmity – something unchristian.
He also claimed that Lucia was being sponsored by her mother to make the allegations in order to get money out of him. To show how bad his daughter can be, Bugembe said that Lucia had gone to the extent of smuggling witchcraft – green leaves and tips of chicken legs wrapped in bark cloth – into his bedroom.
“But do you think [Lucia] can design witchcraft?” Bugembe said. “There is a force behind her. When you become a pastor, you have to be ready for any attack.”
However, the area Local Council leaders have a different story. The Mutungo Zone 6 Secretary for Women, Jane Nalongo Lugayizi, said she was aware that Lucia had run away from home several times, claiming that Bugembe was harassing her.
In March 2005, the girl sought shelter in a neighbour’s house and the neighbour took her to Nalongo at night. A meeting was convened that night involving local leaders, Lucia, Bugembe, his wife, and his in-laws. At the end of the meeting, said to have ended about 2 a.m., Bugembe wrote and signed a statement committing himself to be a better parent.
Taking responsibility
“I, Pastor Herbert Bugembe of Mutungo Zone 6… have accepted the claims and reports that were reported by [Lucia] that on the 20th of March 2005, I attempted to unlawfully have sexual intercourse with my daughter and upon refusing, I beat her and caused her to run away from our home… and it was the second time it was happening to the child,” Bugembe wrote in the statement dated March 30, 2005.
Bugembe further writes that the matter had been reported to Kitintale Police Post on March 27, 2005 by Lucia’s teacher. He ends by promising to put his daughter in a good boarding school and asking all present to forgive him.
According to Nalongo, the matter was then considered closed. But it did not end there. Bugembe says that last year, he had a mission to preach in 32 churches in Kenya and he took his family with him.
Lucia says that her father promised he would place her in a vocational school in Kenya. It was there in Mwimuto, near Nairobi, that Bugembe allegedly raped her.
“It was around 4 a.m. I was sleeping in the chair. I was wearing my night dress. He only had a towel wrapped around his body. Then I saw someone sitting on me and holding my mouth and I was struggling to shout… When he got off me, he entered his room and closed the door. I cried a lot.”
In the interview with The Weekly Observer, Bugembe repeatedly denied having had sexual intercourse with his daughter. He said he could not do such a thing both as a Muganda and as a born-again Christian.
Lucia says that a month after the incident, she developed sores and swellings in her private parts until she could hardly walk. Noticing the girl’s worsening situation, Bugembe later dressed her wounds using a piece of cloth, capsules and hot water.
According to Dr. Adrian Matovu, a medical officer in Rakai, if the sores and blisters were related to the alleged rape, it suggests that the girl contracted a sexually transmitted infection during the act.
Lucia says that once she missed her periods for two months, she knew she was pregnant. Despite the sickness and pregnancy, Lucia claims she did not get any help from Bugembe’s wife, who is said to have been incensed by the girl’s increased appetite.
Maid in Kenya
In January this year, Lucia says her father took her at night to a woman called Helen, promising to pick her up the next day. The next thing she heard, the Bugembe family had returned to Uganda and left her in Kenya. Apparently, she was supposed to work as Helen’s house maid.
“I just started crying. I was pregnant. What was I going to do? The woman told me that any Ugandan found walking on the road in the area could easily get killed,” Lucia said.
Bugembe admits that when the family returned to Uganda in January, Lucia remained in Kenya. He could not explain why he left her in Kenya. All Bugembe says is that he left her with a cousin called Robert in a house with rent paid upfront for two months. Then he adds that when he went back to pick the two children, he found that Lucia “had run away with men”.
Lucia’s account is that she got help from health workers at Wangige Health Centre, who also directed her to a doctor who bought her a bus ticket back to Uganda.
She went straight to her mother’s home in Kayunga. On June 17, 2007, she delivered a baby boy.
But because of cultural beliefs relating to incest, she is reported to have refused to breast-feed ‘her father’s’ baby, fearing it would die. The baby (names withheld) has since been taken to a Kampala orphanage following the intervention of ANPPCAN, the African Network for Prevention and Protection against Child Abuse and Neglect.
Empty promises
ANPPCAN’s Information Officer, Joshua Lubandi, told The Weekly Observer that the NGO first learnt of Lucia’s case around May this year, when she reported having been raped by her father.
Lubandi said that Bugembe committed himself to maintain both children but had since reneged on his promise. The Weekly Observer has seen a document titled ‘Commitment to maintain and care for my child’, signed by Bugembe in the presence of APPCAN social workers.
“I, Bugembe Herbert hereby agree that I am the father of the child of [Lucia]. I therefore commit myself to care and maintain both the mother of the child and the child by providing for both of them food, shelter and clothing,” reads the July 15, 2007 statement. “I make this commitment without undue influence or coercion of any form and hereby append my signature to affirm this.”
Bugembe pledged to pay Shs 40,000 every month but ANPPCAN says he has not paid again since that July. About failing to pay, Bugembe explained that he had lost the contact of the ANPPCAN officials and did not know where their offices were located.
Both Lucia and Lubandi separately told The Weekly Observer that Bugembe was given a Post Bank Account number on which he was supposed to deposit the money.
But he failed to honour that commitment.
rimkav@ugandaobserver.com
