Why was Pastor Ssemanda arrested?

Nov 17, 2020

In another scam, 55 pastors were duped to pay sh500,000 each to work as volunteers under the health ministry to screen people for COVID-19 at various border points.

Pastor Sirajje Ssemanda, the man at the centre of a sh4.5b alleged scam was on Sunday, November 15 arrested trying to leave the country.

The State House AntiCorruption Unit spokesperson, Mariam Natasha, said Ssemanda was intercepted at Mutukula, a border point between Uganda and Tanzania. "He is being detained at Mutukula Police Station as arrangements are being made to transfer him to Kampala," Natasha said.

Ssemanda has been living a lavish lifestyle, driving expensive vehicles with personalised number plates of Good News.

People close his church said he worked under the late Pastor Augustine Yiga before breaking away to form his own. Ssemanda's attempt to leave the country follows a petition by a group of pastors to the State House Anti-Corruption Unit (SHACU) over a scam in which fellow pastors, State House employees and senior government officials were allegedly fleeced of sh4.5b.

During a meeting with the SHACU head, Lt. Col. Edith Nakalema, at her office on Friday, November 13, the pastors said they were living in fear after receiving threats.

One of the pastors said he has been "sleeping in the bushes" to avoid being killed.

The pastors claim that for the last three years, Pastor Sirajje Ssemanda alias Pastor Bombo, the proprietor of Bombo Revival Church, has been working with a clique of other senior pastors and prominent government officials to dupe fellow pastors and followers into mobilising money to join government programmes.

Ten pastors who represented different regions across the country attended the meeting.

They included Bishop Godfrey Kuloba, Bishop Ann Grace Igune from Nakapiripirit, Rev. Isaac Matovu from Kasangati, Pastor Alfred Eweju from Kaberamaido, Pastor Steven Naaya from Kasangati and Apostle Edward Masaba.

Masaba said at the start, Pastor Ssemanda mobilised them and formed an organisation called Hands Across the World Initiative Uganda Limited, where he was elected the president.

Ssemanda became its patron and Pastor Franklin Mondo Mugisha was a consultant.

ALLEGED SCAM

Masaba said Pastor Ssemanda introduced several programmes and asked them to coordinate various activities.

One of them was to mobilise pastors and followers for a trip to Israel, where he claimed to have obtained offers for the training of over 200 people.

He also promised free air tickets and accommodation to all the participants.

According to Masaba, various churches throughout the country registered beneficiaries at a fee.

At least 800 beneficiaries, each paying amounts ranging from sh500,000 to sh1m, but the trip did not take place. He said Ssemanda organised another trip to take followers and pastors to South Africa, for a two-week conference.

He said the pastors mobilised 1,528 followers and each was asked to pay sh50,000 for certificates. In addition, Masaba said, the participants were asked to pay sh125,000 for work permits, but the trip never happened.

In another alleged fraudulent programme, the pastors were asked to register all vulnerable people in their respective churches to benefit from some funding.

 

Nakalema (centre) with pastors in her office, in Kampala. (Photo by Eddie Ssejjoba)

He said each of the beneficiaries was supposed to pay sh25,000. He said in another programme, Ssemanda promised to secure funds from abroad, to help churches construct premises and each church paid sh130,000 as registration fee.

He said at least 300 churches registered and paid the fee, but nothing has ever been given to them. According to the pastors, Ssemanda informed them that he had secured funds from abroad for scholarships of children both in primary and secondary and asked those with schools to register them to benefit from this programme.

He said Ssemanda also printed identity cards, copies of which they surrendered to Nakalema, which were sold for between sh10,000 and sh50,000, for registration to benefit from government programmes, including the Operation Wealth Creation.

"For all these programmes we were involved and would mobilise massively from our followers and would forward the money to him and his clique," Masaba said, adding that in order to convince them, he would introduce to them several employees of State House who sit at Okello House.

Masaba added that, at one point, hundreds of pastors travelled from upcountry and gathered at Tick Hotel in Kawempe, a city suburb on September 8, 2018, but they were surprised that, instead, Lt. Gen. Charles Angina, the deputy coordinator of Operation Wealth Creation (OWC) was the chief guest and only talked to them about how to benefit from the programme.

Another pastor, Steven Naaya from Kasangati, Wakiso district, said Pastor Ssemanda connected him to Hilary Musoke alias Kisanja, a mobiliser in the Office of the President and another senior UPDF officer at the rank of major and asked him to mobilise pastors who would be appointed as mobilisers to canvass votes for the NRM party and President Yoweri Museveni.

He said they asked for 4,000 pastors, who he claimed were supposed to meet the President. "I mobilised 600 pastors and we were supposed to travel to Rwakitura to meet the President on December 26, 2019," Naaya said, adding that each one of them was asked to pay a registration fee of sh50,000.

He said the meeting was changed to December 31, 2019, at Revival Ministry Church in Bombo and he mobilised 2,000 followers who turned up, expecting to meet the President.

Naaya said, at midnight, Ssemanda instead led to the venue, musician Catherine Kusasira who claimed that she was representing the President and no conclusion was reached on the programme.

He said when he started following up on the matter, he was invited to Okello House, where some officials threatened him and demanded that he rests the matter.

He said in another scam, 55 pastors were duped to pay sh500,000 each to work as volunteers under the health ministry to screen people for COVID-19 at various border points.

Pastor Priscilla Susan Ijoku, a school director in Soroti town, said 700 private schools joined the programme of school sponsorship and registered beneficiaries at a fee of sh25,000.

She said banks had started attaching schools that were duped due to failure to pay loans.

NAKALEMA RESPONDS

Nakalema blamed the pastors, who she said accepted to be duped.

"This is a saddening story. I can't imagine a man who took a photo with the President could use it to dupe a whole group of pastors who are well exposed," she said.

She said she is happy that Pastor Ssemanda was finally arrested.

She said she had deployed everywhere, to track him, but that he had kept on dodging. "Right now, he is on the way back; they are bringing him to Kampala and we want him to tell us whoever he was dealing with in this scam," Nakalema said.

She said she had summoned all people mentioned in the petition by the pastors to turn up today and that she had directed all the 10 pastors who filed the complaints to identify the people suspected in the fraud.

"I was feeling bad that we had failed to get the man's co-ordinates because he continued changing phones and dodging every route," she said.

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