What if God fails to cure Uganda’s thieves?

Allan Tacca. COURTESY PHOTO

What you need to know:

Strange accusation. What is the stuff that the media should be properly interested in, if not a scheme that solicits money from vulnerable people and billions of shillings from public funds; whether delivered, or not yet delivered?

In a search for a broadcast talk-show host who sounds as if their more natural occupation was snoozing under a large tree shade, Top Radio’s Dunstan Busulwa would make the shortlist.
Not a bad thing, since Mr Busulwa is often condemned to face NRM/Museveni apologists and propagandists, who are so volatile and self-important, that a more competent host would have tamed his guests and denied us the weird spectacle of the President’s media warriors.

Mr Busulwa feebly protests, before permitting every kind of gutter-level insult the President’s men throw at their victims. However, last Monday evening, when Pastor Robert Kayanja was mentioned in connection with possible financial shenanigans, Mr Busulwa woke up completely and put his foot down, disrupting the proceedings with a long stream of adverts.
He would not allow his guest to strip the flamboyant proprietor of Rubaga Miracle Cathedral.

A useless effort, since there was really nothing new about the allegations. Sunday Monitor had published a full-page coverage of the Kayanja story 48 hours before, on Saturday afternoon. And Pr Kayanja and a colleague had appeared on television a week earlier and talked about the millions of shillings he and his “Version 86 Youth for National Transformation” (V86) had collected from thousands of young people in a scheme targeting billions of shillings from
government funds.

Pr Kayanja of course denies any mischief, blaming the government for not delivering the billions. In the meantime, Kayanja (or V86) is quietly refunding the money, if requested.
However, Pr Kayanja is angry with Mr Ladislaus Rwakafuuzi, the lawyer representing the youth, for leaking things about this dispute to the media. Kayanja calls it an attack on his person and his church.

It is a strange accusation. What is the stuff that the media should be properly interested in, if not a scheme that solicits money from vulnerable people and billions of shillings from public funds; whether delivered, or not yet delivered?
It is unlikely that these young people would have sought legal help if (after three years) recovering their money had been hassle-free.

You have to be poor, rather unimaginative and brainwashed, to think that ‘investing’ Shs500,000 per 10 people (Shs50,000 each) through a (Ugandan) Pentecostal miracle worker would make President Museveni’s government (and God?) lift you out of poverty.

President Museveni is used to being attacked. He is hardened. And he knows that, ultimately, he cannot hide his government. In contrast, Pr Kayanja wants to be shielded behind the common fear of divine power. Might is right. Therefore God cannot be wrong, and God must never be attacked. By extension, His priests and their institutions must enjoy the same impunity.
Sorry, civilisation is moving ahead. In the USA, Australia, Chile and Europe, religious leaders (and institutions) are being unmasked. Their moral hypocrisy, especially in matters of sexual, is for all to see.

In countries such as Uganda, Zambia and Nigeria, unaccountable religious conmen have from time to time been involved in the smuggling or misappropriation of things like second-hand clothes, computers, books and whisky. And they may be already targeting public funds.

To those awake, the religious set can no longer take the old respect for granted. Pastor Kayanja et al must earn it. Indeed, under a more accountable government, religious organisations that gain access to (substantial) government funds (including tax-sourced presidential handouts) should by law open themselves to the Auditor General and IGG’s scrutiny.
Otherwise, disillusioned believers will begin to think that God Himself, having failed to change their hearts, has finally joined the thieves.