How Uganda 'poo poo pastor' Martin Ssempa tried to use anti-gay bill against other pastors

Ssempa

With the awful situation in Uganda with that country's president poised to sign the anti-gay persecution bill, (UPDATE - there are unconfirmed reports that he signed the bill) a reminder of how one of the proponents of the bill, Martin Ssempa, persuaded people to support this bill is in order. I should warn you that while the video below does not show graphic images, the lies coming from Ssempa's mouth are nauseating as he talks about gay men supposedly eating feces:


Ssempa was heavily involved in pushing this bill. However, it would seem that he had more than an evangelical notion of being an anti-gay crusader. According to certain accounts, Ssempa was using the bill and his notoriety of speaking out against lgbts to gain power and clout by attacking other pastors with accusations of homosexuality.

In 2012, he and five others ( Pastors Solomon Male, Michael Kyazze and Robert Kaira, Deborah Anita Kyomuhendo, and David Mukalazi) were found guilty of  a conspiracy to falsely accuse another pastor, Robert Kayanja of Rubaga Miracle Centre Cathedral, Kampala,  of having sexual relations with men in his congregation.

According to Box Turtle Bulletin:

 The guilty verdict stemmed from a May 2009 incident in which Ssempa and the others engaged in a conspiracy to coerce a male church member at Robert Kayanja’s Rubaga Miracle Center Cathedral to claim that the parishioner had had sex with Kayanja. The six were sentenced to a fine of one million Shillings each (about US$390) and one hundred hours of community service.

 It is also alleged that through various unscrupulous means, Ssempa and company were attempting to get other men to claim that Kayanja was sodomizing them.


Another article at Box Turtle Bulletin also said:

One of the more immediate fallouts of the infamous March 2009 conference put on by Scott Lively and two other American anti-gay activists in Kampala, besides the notorious Anti-Homosexuality Bill, was a long and fearsome anti-gay vigilante campaign waged by the tabloids and on television and radio, with the full backing and participation by Ssempa and Male. During the anti-gay hysteria that swept Uganda, Ssempa and Male were among other powerful pastors who took the opportunity to launch wild accusations against rival pastors in a bid to increase their own power base and financial clout.

This particular case revolved around charges that Ssempa, Male and others made against Pastor Robert Kayanja of the Rubaga Miracle Center Cathedral of being a homosexual, along with “a group of other pastors.” Before they made their charges public in the summer of 2009, Kayanja’s personal aide, Chris Muwonge, was allegedly kidnapped and tortured by armed men and held for five days. His captors allegedly wanted him to make a video statement accusing Kayanja of molesting young boys. Kayanja accused his rival, Pastor Michael Kyazze of the Omega Healing Center of being behind the plot. The ensuring investigation ultimately connected Ssempa and Male to the conspiracy.

An article in the December 23, 2010 issue of the Daily Monitor said that Ssempa was accused of hiring another man, Robson Matovu, to blackmail Pastor Kayanja and there is more:

Pastor Male reportedly gave Mr Matovu a signed and stamped affidavit implicating Pastor Kayanja while Samson Mukisa was reportedly promised necessities on condition that he would speak publicly on how Pastor Kayanja had sodomised him.

The affadavit in question is here on this vile site.  

But according to a December 29, 2010 issue of the Daily Monitor, Matovu was examined and no evidence of anal penetration was found. And that is when the entire ghastly plot was revealed by Matovu and others who had initially accused Kayanja of sodomy:

A police report indicates that complaints of sodomy against Pastor Kayanja did not reveal any evidence the offences. “In retracting their statements, the complainants said they had been mobilised to make false accusations against Pastor Kayanja in order to tarnish his name,” reads a report.

It's an old story told again and again. A so-called moral crusader whose rabid devotion to the philosophy of his so-called religion is really a cover for his nauseating lack of morals and sad thirst for power.  And with that story comes the same outcome - the destruction of so many innocent lives.

Big props to Box Turtle Bulletin for supplying the links to this post. With its trendsetting report, Slouching Toward Kampala: Uganda’s Deadly Embrace of Hate, Box Turtle Bulletin was the first publication to fully document the Ugandan bill and the players behind it.