First Read :
The impossibility of defeating American prosperity pastors in Uganda
using client state justice systems : Six
Pastor Kayanja sodomy accusers convicted
Pastor Male accuses police of shoddy work
Friday, 05 October 2012 00:47
It seems the story of Pastor Robert Kayanja and
the other four pastors, who were, on Wednesday, convicted to 100 hours of
community service is not about to end.
Pastor Moses Male, one of the convicted pastors,
has now turned his guns on the police, accusing them of failing to carry out
thorough investigations. In his letter to the Inspector General of Police, Lt
Gen Kale Kayihura, Male says the police have failed to look into the “endemic”
kidnaps that have happened since accusations of sodomy against Pastor Kayanja
emerged.
“I want to draw your attention to
human kidnaps that now seem to have become endemic, carried out on Kayanja’s
youthful followers some of who have testified against me and my
co-accused persons in the sodomy saga,” Male’s letter dated September 26 says
in part.
Male, together with pastors Martin Sempa, Michael
Kyazze and Robert Kayiira, was on Wednesday convicted of conspiracy to injure
the reputation of Pastor Kayanja. On top of serving community service, they are
supposed to pay a fine of Shs one million each.
However, Male maintains he is innocent claiming
his conviction is premised on half-baked investigations. Citing the alleged
kidnap of John Mutumba and Robinson Matovu, he says the two despite testifying
against him recently produced recorded tapes retracting their court
testimonies.
They are said to have been kidnapped on July 8,
2012 and the matter reported to police on May 10, 2012. According to Male, no
investigations were carried out even when the suspected kidnappers are being
held at Old Kampala Police Station.
Mutumba claims to have been
kidnapped at night on his way from work at Miracle Centre where he
works as a cameraman; Matovu alleges to have been called and deceived
that Mutumba had got an accident, then kidnapped on his way to get to
him.
Their captors were allegedly armed with
machineguns and AK 47 assault rifles. Some few months earlier, there was
another alleged kidnap of Kayanja’s aide, Ezekiel Wambuzi.
“Very surprising and disturbing is that since the
kidnap video was recorded, posted on You Tube and statements made to Police on
file GEF 198/2012, there seems to have been not even the least interest for
police to investigate such glaring allegations,” Male wites.
Earlier abductions
Male also mentions Chris Muwonge who was
allegedly kidnapped on his way from the Miracle Centre night prayer on the
morning of April 18, 2009, and held for five days.
During his captivity, Muwonge was put at gunpoint
and allegedly promised $120,000 to say on camera that Kayanja sodomized boys
before his “kidnappers” dumped him at Kayanja’s Kawuku residence in
Makindye division.
Next to be kidnapped was Herbert Tumukunde on the
night of May, 11, 2009 by “four masked men” within the Miracle Cathedral
premises, dragged into a waiting car, Toyota Mark II which immediately drove
off, and was allegedly tortured. He was threatened with death.
Male notes: “More disturbing is that since the
kidnap started way back in 2009, what the public has been told by police
publicist Judith Nabakooba is that the police are seriously
investigating. I am not aware of any statements recorded from key
suspects mentioned in respect of each kidnap.”
