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Ugandan Gay Pastor Resigns after Media Witch-hunt!

joram jojo | 12.07.2007 21:19

Uganda Daily Monitor " independent Newspaper" has forced a Born-again Pastor to resign from his ministry.
The Newspaper seems to have declared an open War against Gay People in Uganda, US and UK.

Its very absurd that a Newspaper many once respected and gave credit for its good journalism has stooped tha low.
Why is this happening now? Recent the Museveni family has aquired a stake in the subsdiary business of the Aghakan(Nation Media) and critical Journalists of the regime have been sacked, including the former Managing Director.
For the last three consecutive weeks, the Newspaper seems to have aquired a gay bashing test. Basically, this is how the genocide in Rwanda creeped through media hatread campaigns. WE SHOULD NOT LET THIS HAPPEN!!!!

The only people that can stand-by the Gay community in Uganda, is a very small number of Anarchists that also happen to be working underground. We call upon all Human rights Activists to come to the rescue of our Gay (Gays & Lesbians) Brothers and Sisters :- this could be through polite letter writing and other creative forms of resistance.
Please, this is something very serious because the population treats Monitor Newspaper as a semi-god.

This is what the Front page of Monitor says:

Sodomy pastor resigns
RODNEY MUHUMUZA
NAJJANANKUMBI

THE Association of Churches for Born Again Christians announced yesterday that it is probing the lifestyle of Grace Kitaka, the Kampala pastor who has resigned following accusations of sodomy.

Pastor Alex Mitala, the overseer of the National Fellowship for Born Again Pentecostal Churches (NFBAPC), told a press conference yesterday that Pastor Kitaka would be condemned if evidence of what he called "perversion" is found.

Pastor Mitala told the press of "the agony "we are going through" over a crime "we strongly condemn". "We have received information that Mr Grace Kitaka, who of recent has been alleged to have been engaged in sodomy, has decided to resign from his position as pastor, pending investigations into the case," Pastor Mitala's statement said.

"We applaud this step that promotes the integrity of the Born Again Church community, and we hope that the truth will come out and appropriate justice will be administered."
The announcement means that should the investigators find evidence to implicate the cleric, the Kampala church of Imelda Namutebi, where Mr Kitaka is an associate, could also be blacklisted by the fellowship.

Although NFBAPC membership is voluntary, the fellowship has the authority to expose and expel from its ranks churches whose conduct challenges agreed-upon doctrine and practice.

Uganda has 20,000 churches for born again Christians, it was revealed yesterday, although only 1,020 are bona fide members of NFBAPC.

Sunday Monitor published an interview with a man who claimed that Mr Kitaka, his onetime benefactor, repeatedly sodomised him during his teenage days. It was not known if Mr Kitaka had denied the charges before throwing in the towel, but some reports suggested that he claimed he was the subject of a witch-hunt.

His accuser, Julius Lukyamuzi, spoke of how he was traumatised by years of sodomy performed on him, and how Pastor Namutebi attempted to enforce a cover-up.
Sempa happy
Pastor Martin Sempa of Makerere Community Church said on Tuesday he was "happy" that Mr Kitaka has been exposed. "All along I have been telling people about this guy," he said.

Pastor Mitala said he wanted all the "dirt" to be exposed and called on the police to "do their duty and protect the public".

Police spokesman Asan Kasingye said yesterday the CID had opened a file on Pastor Kitaka although he did not provide details of the progress.
The Penal Code Act criminalises sodomy or homosexuality, and a convict is liable to life imprisonment.

Interest in the activities of the Pentecostals has been stoked further by the recent arrest and interrogation at Entebbe Airport of a Ghanaian-born Kampala pastor who procured an "electric touch" machine that is believed to shock unsuspecting followers who think it is the power of the Holy Spirit.

Mr Kojo Obiri Yeboah is now the subject of a police investigation. He was yesterday disowned by Pastor Mitala. "Obiri is not known to us as a member of the Born Again Christian community in Uganda".

There have been rising cases of pastors' notoriety, including the arrest on Tuesday of Pastor Paul Mbaziira of Revival Word Ministries over alleged theft of a car and obtaining money by false pretences. Mr Mbaziira, 30, who has a church at Katovu town in Masaka District, is now in police custody.

This was the leading story Embeded in Red and White graphics of which monitor never does to anyother story!!

Sodomy in Church

The Monitor (Kampala)
NEWS
8 July 2007
Posted to the web 9 July 2007

By Simon Kasyate
Kampala
Victim reveals inside story

Twenty six year old Mr Julius Lukyamuzi's story sounds like the paradigm in the ancient Greek tragedies that the more you attempt to run away from fate the more you are running towards it.

Julius had a shattered childhood after his parents separated in mid 1990s. He lived his early years in destitution with his mother near Bwebajja on Entebbe Road. After his Primary Seven education, he came to the city in 1995 in search of employment. His story reveals how he found home on the streets, teamed up with street gangs for survival.

But when later he re-discovered himself to abandon the Devil and turn to Christ, little did he know that he was actually running towards a bigger Devil than what he was fleeing.

His story is a fusion of sadness, exploitation and betrayal inflicted on him by people who were supposed to protect and counsel him. It's also a glaring exposure of the emptiness of some of the emerging evangelical churches of pseudo-puritans who have turned into Devil's disciples.

Mr Julius narrated this seemingly unbelievable but chilling story to Sunday Monitor with documentary and pictorial evidence to support his assertions.

"One day in 1995, I was living at the Freedom Square in Katwe, a gospel crusade by Pastor Deo Balabyekubo, was announced.

A policeman Mr Opolot who we had always seen around called me. I went straight to him. He asked why I was not getting saved. I got saved. He called a lady Aunt Jas who took me and other boys to Kibuye Prayer Palace of Pastor Balabyekubo. The next day, we met Balabyekubo and he promised to take us back to school. But he died shortly later. I was staying at the church with about 15 other boys. When we returned from his burial certain pastors started picking us one by one.

I was picked by Pastor Grace Kitaka. He took me to his home in Mengo near Bulange. (This is at Zakariya Kisingiri's house next to the Supreme Court and Kitaka is Kisingiri's grandchild). Kitaka told me he wanted me to stay with him and leave Kibuye Prayer Palace.

He collected me from the church the next day. He introduced me to his mother Princess Mugale. I found there big boys like Sebwama, Wilberforce, Andrew Kalibala, Aaron and others.

He had no wife and children but had many adopted children. The same year 1995 he asked me if I wanted to go back to school. I agreed. He took me to Dynamic SSS. He introduced me as his son and renamed me Kitaka. I was now known as Julius Kitaka.

At his home, I shared a room with a boy David Lule. But we later conflicted and Pastor Kitaka asked me to start sleeping in his room. We were eight boys. He started using me for many strange things (breaks down into sobs). He would take me to the bathroom and force me to masturbate him (sobs uncontrollably).

Even Lule used to do it but we could not tell each other what we were going through.

In 1996 we stopped going to Kibuye Prayer Palace and started going to Kansanga Miracle Centre at Pastor Kiwewesi's Church. Kitaka is good at music. Churches used to invite him to work for them. So Kiwewesi had called him to help him. Kitaka had no church of his own.

At Kansanga, there were many pastors including Kiwewesi, Simbwa and Namutebi. Kitakka was a pastor for music. We were like his children and very close to him. In 1996 while in S.2, on a Sunday night, he took me to a small room. He left and returned with a blanket, gave it to me and left again. He returned later and told me to masturbate him.

I did and he started sodomising me (weeps). Because it was raining outside, nobody could hear my screams. I fled to the door, kicked it several times but no one could hear. (Julius breaks down again). That night I could not sleep. (breaks down again). In the morning Kitaka came and told me to go to the bathroom. He followed me and watched me as I bathed. Later I went to his sister Irene Kisingiri (they lived together) and told her. The woman knew his habits. She just said they would try to lock my room so that he did not disturb me again.

I reported to the LCI chairman, Mr Kabanda. After telling him the story, he asked: "Aren't you the son of Pastor Grace Kitaka called Julius Kitaka?"

The LCI man told me this was a family matter which would be settled at family level. I told him I am Julius Lukyamuzi. He refused to give me a reference letter to the police and said he would come home to arbitrate.

When he came, we sat and Irene counselled the brother and advised that I be taken to hospital. They took me to Dr Kalibala of Namirembe Hospital who has a clinic in Nakulabye. He checked me and wrote a report, which Kitaka took.

In 1997, we boys who lived at Kitaka's home told Pastor Imelda Namutebi that Kitaka was a gay. She said, "He is not, it can't be, never talk about a man of God, never touch my anointed one..." She got a Bible and started counselling us. But we told her we were going to tell the whole world what this guy was doing.

She pleaded saying if we did, the church would split. She asked us what we wanted, we said we wanted to leave Kitaka. She told us to be patient and warned that if I told my mum, I would see what would happened to me.

After a couple of days, we wrote to Kitaka a letter and pushed it under his door. We condemned him for his actions. He called a meeting and quarrelled till 5 a.m. Knowing my handwriting, he singled me out and took me to boarding at Light College Katikamu. Emma ad Simbwa were taken to Cardinal Nsubuga Memorial College.

In 1997 Namutebi started buying me drugs because I was discharging blood. In 1998 I completed my S.4. In 1999 Emma returned from school and said part of his intestine was coming out. He told Pastor Kitaka and he took him to Namirembe Hospital where he was operated on. We spent one and half months in hospital.

I was tasked to be his caretaker. I got closer to him. One night he told me how Kitaka had sodomised him. We spent the whole night crying together. That year I enrolled at Ndejje SSS for S.5 but told Kitaka I could not continue with books. I was traumatised.

In 2000 we packed our bags and left. David Lule disappointed us, he stayed. We went to Pastor Namutebi and told her our testimonies.

She immediately called Pastor Kitaka and we sat in a meeting in an office near Bulange. We told them we were going to tell the country our plight. Namutebi pleaded with us. She asked us to tell her what we would want. I told them we wanted to remain in school, they rent a house for us and we stay as we had been.

They accepted. We got a house near the Kabaka's lake at Shs80,000. They gave us money for about six months and Shs200,000 for upkeep. After six months, Kitaka went to America. When he returned he started separating us. Simbwa went to him and said he had given him 200 dollars and that we should go to pick ours. I was the last to go and he gave me Shs360,000 and he told me to separate from the boys. I refused.

After two weeks, Emma took juice and started vomiting. He went to Lubaga Hospital and was told he had consumed poison. We started tracing the origin of the poison and all signs pointed to Simbwa. Simbwa got a knife to stab Emma. I separated them. In the morning, Yosama was also seriously sick, Simbwa disappeared. I went to Pastor Kitaka and told him the boys wanted to kill each other. Kitaka gave me money and told me to leave the group and find my own house. I started looking for Simbwa because we were friends. I got him in Mengo. We went to Bukoto. This was 2000.

The other group shifted to Ndeeba. One night in 2001 police came looking for us. They said I had punched a City Council man with my group. They took me, the landlord's son and another to Kira Road Police Station. The next day we were taken to court. We were released on bail. After a month City Hall magistrate Deborah Wanume dismissed the case.

In 2001 I again told Kitaka that I was badly off, I was still discharging blood. He told me they would take me for an operation in South Africa. He got for me a passport. But the details in the passport were different from what I had filled on the forms. They gave me an ID of Kyambogo University. They told me to go to the South African embassy. They started coaching me what to tell the embassy. Namutebi told me I had been booked for operation in South Africa. But in August 2003, I was arrested. The police came to my place and asked me for my ID, which I gave them. They asked, "are you a student at Kyambogo University?" I said, "Yes".

They took me to Old Kira Police Station. A few days later they drove me to Kyambogo University to the registrar's office and asked whether I was a student there. He checked in the register and said my name wasn't there.

I was taken to court on September 3 and sentenced to two years in jail in Luzira. After six months I was transferred to Rwimi prison in Kasese. Life there was hard. We went 95 but most of my colleagues died. We used to drink unboiled water.

I was released in January 2005 (sobs). I visited my mum and she was happy. In May I came back to tell mum Betty my whole life story, but I failed (cries, wipes off tears). She works in Kabugu on Entebbe Road. In July I went back. That Friday she was going to Abaita Ababili market. I said mum, let me tell you one thing. I was sodomised by Pastor Grace and he is the one behind all these tricks of my being in jail because I told him I would expose him.

"I told you to leave those balokole and you refused," she told me. "You used to say they were paying your school fees and you were happy with them, now do you see what has happened?" (breaks down in tears). My mum collapsed. She spent two weeks in a coma at Mulago Hopspital. They discharged us. My mum is now at home in Bwebajja but she lost her memory. When I visit her now she can't tell my name. I don't even want to visit her because whenever I do, I become traumatised.

In 2003 I met Pastor Joseph Serwada at California Bar during a prayer crusade. I walked up to him and told him that that man you see seated over there, Pastor Grace, sodomised me. He told me to go to his office on Monday. I kept going to his office for about two months, but I could only see his assistants.

In 2006 I heard about Pastor Male Solomon. I went and told him about my problems. He assisted me to go back to Uganda Human Rights Commission where I had reported the case of sodomy in 2001. Male wrote a letter to Mr Nathan of UHRC to trace my file. They could not trace it although in the register, my name was there. The file got lost.

We went to Mr Grace Turyagumanawe, the regional police commander, and told him our complaint. He called a police officer Mr Olweny who recorded our statements-- me and Emma Magara.

Earlier in April I had been arrested by police who said Kitaka had accused me of threatening violence. But Mr Turyagumanawe released me on bond.

On July 18, Mr Olweny told me that Kitaka had been arrested. I called my family and Pastor Male that Kitaka was in cells. When I returned, Mr Olweny told me he was sorry Kitaka had been released by Sakira the previous night. Mr Sakira told us it was an order from above.

We were puzzled. Emma and I went to the IGP Mr Kale Kayihura on August 24, 2006. He handed us over to his personal secretary Owomugisha Herman. Herman was later transferred and replaced by Anne Asiimwe. Since then Kitaka has never been taken to court.

joram jojo
- e-mail: joramjojo@yahoo.com

Comments

Display the following 2 comments

  1. Born Again as Catholics. — Pelagian
  2. go hang — Kaggwa
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