Newly-appointed justice minister Norbert Mao has revealed that it was through prayers that his son, who had gone missing in August 2019, was found.

He gave the testimony during the honouring of Prophet Elvis Mbonye at the New Zoe Grounds in Lweza, Entebbe Road.

Mao Nicholas Hope, a student of Vienna College, 19, had disappeared for four days.

Kampala Metropolitan Police spokesperson Patrick Onyango then appealed to anyone with information about Nicholas to call the toll-free lines 0800199699, 0800199399 or call 0752011011. He also appealed to Nicholas to contact his relatives and tell them where he is.

Mao said he gave up hope after the Police failed to locate his son who had disappeared for days.

“My son got lost for almost four days and the Police, with their sophisticated gadgets, could not locate him, so I told myself, maybe the presence of Elvis Mbonye may do something, maybe by going to Zoe Grounds (then in Lugogo), God may pay attention. You know some of us are like Jonah in the Bible; we are always dodging. I really didn’t know what may happen, I had given up, I had never met Mbonye.

“I decided to go to Zoe Grounds and the Prophet (Mbonye) said we should pray because God gets personal too. You can say God is going to do something for Uganda and what about you? This time, it wasn’t about Uganda, it was about me.”

 Mao explained that after the prayers, he left.

“When I reached home, my son was back, so I decided to get in touch with  Mbonye.”

However, Mao couldn’t reach him.

Mbonye had been summoned to Police in October 2019 over allegations of misinforming the public on the mass immunisation exercise of polio, measles and Rubella. 

“When I learnt that he was due to be arrested, and he had been summoned to CID for whatever crime, I went to Kibuli. On the way, I had to tell a lie that I am his lawyer. When I got close to him, I saw a man full of love and humanity, totally different from the caricature that is pushed in media, that is their own creation, there was no case even the police officers were scared of him.”