Pastor Male

ACCUSATIONS, counter accusation and allegations are rife in the born again churches with the crux being sodomy. Pastor Male is at the front of the anti-sodomy campaign and here he answers questions from Sunday Vision.

By Esther Namugoji

You have been accused of tarnishing Pastor Robert Kayanja’s name. Why?

We are not defaming him. What we are doing is helping victims of sodomy. It is not us saying that Kayanja sodomised. The person who filed a case at with the Police is Samson Mukisa, not Male or Ssempa. What he is claiming is just diversionary. Why do boys come up to say he has sodomised them? Some of his fellow pastors know it but they fear his connections.

There are disparities in Mukisa’s testimony.

The boy said they had a competition among the children in the street kids’ ministry. They divided into groups just for the occasion. ‘Group A’ cannot really be a name of a choir. The dates that Kayanja is quoting are not in the boy’s affidavit. If it is in a Police statement, I cannot say because the boy was alone with the Police when he made it. When we asked him he said he could not remember the exact dates.

So who knows where these dates came from? Besides, at first on UBC TV Kayanja’s assistant was quoting the affidavit. It was only after I appeared on WBS TV and said there were no dates in the affidavit that he started saying he got the dates from the Police.

You are said to be behind the kidnap, harassment and attempted murder of two people from Kayanja’s church.

We have victims who are ready to testify without being forced. Wouldn’t it be foolish to kidnap somebody and promise him money to force him to confess that Kayanja sodomised him, when there are others willing to say the same thing? We are not that desperate. That is why we called for a public inquiry into all this.

Kayanja says we hate him, we framed him and kidnapped his people. I have read the latest kidnap story and I have to call it ‘Miraclewood’. Like we have Hollywood, Bollywood, and Nollywood, this one is drama made in Miracle Centre. I, Male have no money. Why would I spend sh240m to frame Kayanja? Kyazze is not rich. Ssempa even lives in a rented house. Where do we stand to benefit?

It’s a tactical move to make people not to trust anyone who comes up to say Kayanja sodomised them. It is also aimed at scaring other boys from coming out.

Kayanja says Herbert Tumukunde was promised money in exchange for the information.

I don’t know whether money was promised. I’ve come to think that Kayanja is the one who sent the boy to us in the first place to try to trap us, thinking we’re fools. So he sends someone who he knows will later deny.

Mukisa reported his case to the Police in February. Later we read that Kayanja had offered to renovate Old Kampala Police Station. Before long, Tumukunde came to Pastor Kyazze, saying Kayanja sodomised him and that there was video evidence. Pastor Kyazze who was travelling left Kayiira in charge of helping Tumukunde sign an affidavit and go for a medical test. Tumukunde asked Kayiira to meet him at Garden City rather than Omega Healing Centre because he feared he was being followed.

The boy told Kayiira to bring a laptop to download the material at Miracle Centre. But Kayiira opted to wait at Nabunya Road. On that Friday, after waiting for a long time for the boy, he walked away.

Later he returned after being called by Tumukunde’s friend and armed men in plainclothes emerged from the bush. One of them shot in the air, forcing Kayiira to drop to the ground and he was frog-marched towards the church. As they neared the place, they made him stand up and walk. The Police was then called in to arrest him.

My question is, who arrested Kayiira? Besides, Kayiira was simply helping the boy who had reported something to him. And 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?

Q: Why didn’t you go to the police instead of doing the investigations yourself?

There is no law that prohibits an individual like Male or Kayiira from investigating a crime.

Two boys had come to us before after years of waiting for police to act on their report that Pastor Kitaka sodomised them. They had instead been harassed and were now nursing ideas of going to bomb Liberty Worship Centre. We counselled them to drop the idea and tried to help them go to police. Up to now those boys have never got justice.

Remember in pastor Kiwewesi’s case, the accuser Arinaitwe became the accused. Kiwewesi threatened to sue me but after the boy was arrested, that was the end of the case.

Q: He could have chosen to forgive you.

I don’t think that Kiwewesi, who did not have mercy on Arinaitwe, could have mercy on Male.

Q: Aren’t you just out to disorganise the Pentecostal churches unfairly?

The person who is disorganising the church is Kayanja. All he as to do is to resign and let one of his assistants take over while he is investigated. If church leaders had dealt with the issue instead of covering it up, this problem would not arise.

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