Mukono residents challenge church over noise pollution

Residents of Kigwanya-Kasokoso in Goma Sub-county, Mukono District, have petitioned police and court to rein in proprietors of Prayer Miracle Centre Church of Christ over noise pollution.
The church operates in a marquee in a fenced open space in a predominantly residential neighbourhood.

Relations between the residents and the church, which relocated to the area about two years ago, have been acrimonious and worsened three weeks ago when worshipper allegedly clobbered a one Majid Kyembe and his wife.
The duo, whose home neighbours the church, were accused of suffocating the congregants with smoke when they set fire to a nearby rubbish dump.

A detective at Kiwanga Police Station, who only identified himself as Robert, said he investigated the alleged assault but later referred the case to Mukono Police Division to handle. We were unable to establish the current status of the inquiries.

Mr Peter Walukamba, a church member, in an interview with this newspaper on Tuesday dismissed Mr Kyembe’s claims of church- goers beating and locking him up in a pit-latrine for half-an-hour when he inquired why they had put out fire his wife set to burn rubbish.
He counter-accused Mr Kyembe, a Muslim, of fighting the church from day one and offering inducement to officials to sway them on his side.

“All those (complaints) are false…we have never complained against the mosque,” Mr Walukamba said in reference to Adhan (Muslim prayer call), which lasts between five to 10 minutes.
He added: “Why is it that a mosque can be there but a church cannot?” The mosque and church stand opposite each other.

In a rejoinder, Mr Kyembe, who sued the church in court last year, said he has no malicious intent but the noise generated by worshippers, including during overnight prayers, was objectionable and violates residents’ constitutional right to a clean and healthy environment.

Following the suit, Mukono Grade One Magistrate Mariam Ssemwanga on February 27, issued a temporary injunction to Mr Walukamba and Prayer Miracle Church of Christ, restraining them and their agents from “perpetuating noise pollution from their premises adjacent to the applicant (Walukamba) or committing other injury of any kind [to him]”.

The church members have also had run-ins with the National Environment Management Authority (Nema) whose spokesman Tonny Achidria said he one time seized equipment of the church for emitting noise beyond legally permissible level, which is 55 decibels.

Background
A February 26, 2018 report, indicates that the sound emitted by the church is in excess of the permitted levels under the NEMA regulations of 2003.

The statutory authority conducted a site inspection and sound level test on February 25, 2018 and in a report issued the next day, and signed on behalf of Nema executive director by Mr Arnold Waiswa Ayizaki, ordered the church to “discontinue all activities causing and likely to generate the production of excessive noise at your facility”.

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