“Yiga raped and impregnated me in 2014, when I was only 15 years,” she told police at Kawempe Police Division headquarters


Pastor Yiga arriving at Kawempe Division Police headquarters. Photos by Lawrence Kitata
CRIME|INVESTIGATION

KAMPALA - Pastor Augustine Yiga has been dragged to police over a defilement scandal that involved a 23- year-old who joined his Revival Church Kawala in 2014.

Yiga was detained at Kawempe Division Police headquarters after he turned himself in to record a statement on the matter on Friday.

Angel Ainembabazi, who joined the church at 15 years, accused the embattled pastor of sexually assaulting her instead of giving her spiritual redemption she sought for.

“Yiga raped and impregnated me in 2014, when I was only 15 years,” she told police at Kawempe Police Division headquarters, where she reported Yiga three months back.

Ainembabazi said: “My friend told me that he was a strong man of God who would pray for me to attain my goal of going to work a broad in order to fend for my family since we are orphans.  And I also wanted to support myself to go for further studies.”

I traveled to Kampala for the first time from Sheema before it was curved out of Bushenyi district.

When I reached at Yiga’s church, he told me that bondages upon my life were too much and I need a special cleansing prayer,” she explained.

“After missing my menstrual periods for four months, I realized that I was pregnant. At the time, I had moved to South Sudan and started working in the home of a governor in one of the states. I was teaching his children at home,” she added.

On realising that she was pregnant after medical check-ups, Ainembabazi claimed that she called Pastor Yiga who instead laughed at her.

He told me “we shall see” and since then, whenever I attempted to call him, the phone would be picked by his aides.

The weather conditions in South Sudan became more unfavourable for me and I decided to move back home,” Aiembabazi narrated.

She added: “When I returned to Uganda, I attempted to call him again, but nobody could pick my phone.

I had no other option but to go to the village and embarked on doing casual jobs in order to look after the pregnancy and the other people at home until I delivered the baby.”

Aiembabazi said her child has grown and that he is at school studying. “He resembles his father and we are going for DNA test to prove that the boy belongs to Yiga,” she noted.

Another rape case

In 2017, Yiga appeared before the executions division of the High Court in Kampala on accusation that he refused to remit monthly maintenance fee of sh150, 000 to one Brenda Nalubega aged 27, whom he allegedly raped and fathered a child with.

Nalubega first reported the child neglect case to FIDA in 2007 after Yiga allegedly denied fathering the child.

It was not until he was compelled to carry out DNA test that he agreed to take care of the child and his mother.

Due to non-compliance, Nalubega took the case to Nabweeru Court where the magistrate ruled that Yiga would be paying sh150, 000 a month for upkeep.

Nalubega claimed that she had gone to Yiga for blessing prayers after she heard him preach and pray for people on radio.

She disclosed that after prayers at Revival Christian Church, Kawala, Yiga invited her for another prayer session in Bukooto the next day from where he allegedly raped her and she got pregnant. She also accused Yiga of infecting her with HIV/AIDS.

Yiga who emerged to prominence with claims that he had the powers to eject bad omen and return them to the sender, recently announced that he had moved to South Africa to start another ministry he allegedly named Great Revival Church in Pretoria West.

He purportedly announced three prayer points that included; rebuking the evil spirits following single mothers, releasing women from the bondage of being single mothers and enriching poverty-stricken families.

However, his return to Uganda, according to some of his critics, was due to a failed mission in South Africa.

On Friday, while appearing on local TV,  Yiga accused other local pastors of working to tarnish his  good name and vowed not to give up as he is back to continue spreading the word of God.

When contacted, the Kampala Metropolitan deputy police spokesperson, Luke Owoyesigire, confirmed that Yiga recorded a statement with the police over the weekend.

Without divulging further details, he referred New Vision to his boss, Patrick Onyango, whose phone was off by press time.

However, members of his church stormed Kawempe Police Station on Saturday to demand for his release.