Staff
hitherto well-coached testimony quickly crumbled like a house of cards.
Peter Sserugo, one of the suspects in the Pastor Robert Kayanja case, like his co-accused who had testified without swearing an oath, came to court with a clearly scripted testimony.
However, as his testimony dragged on, he began to fumble, sweating profusely and drinking a couple of 1.5-liter mineral water bottles. Initially, he spoke in a low-pitched voice, and Chief Magistrate Adams Byarugaba had to repeatedly remind him to speak up.
Twice, he asked for a “short call”, as his memory seemed to fail him, and he had to be escorted to the Mwanga II Court toilets by his co-conspirator, Labib Khalifa.
Labib was the first to request a short call when he realized the testimony was going poorly, and Sserugo joined him. When Sserugo returned to the stand, he did so with renewed confidence and a better, more coherent narrative.
Midway through his submission, State Attorney Jonathan Muwaganya sought clarity on the new evidence being introduced. The lengthy exchange with the defense lawyers caused Sserugo to forget his well-rehearsed testimony.
At this point, the court burst out laughing as Magistrate Byarugaba asked Sserugo if he was reading from somewhere when he went silent for over a minute despite being told to continue.
He improvised by asking for another “short call,” which again made the entire court laugh out loud. Labib once more accompanied him to the toilets. Upon his return, Sserugo, who was testifying in Luganda, gave his first submission in English before reverting to his mother tongue.
Oozing with confidence, he declared, “The report was doctored; it has no stamp, not signed by the police doctor.” After these lines, however, the hesitation and stammering returned until his final word.
Sserugo, who is currently serving a jail sentence for aggravated robbery with a gun and injury against a resident in Kiryandogo where he worked as a farmhand on Pastor Kayanja’s farm, changed his position before testifying.
Earlier this year, he had agreed to testify under oath but later changed his mind, thereby successfully evading cross-examination by the prosecution, which would have likely exposed the coached testimony.
The other interesting twist was lawyer Humphrey Tumwesigye joining the defense team after Magistrate Byarugaba had ruled that the testimonies of his client would not be challenged, regardless of Tumwesigye’s input or consent.
His appearance midway through the session made a full house of lawyers, the same ones who count Pastor Jackson Ssenyonga as a key client. One wonders why Ssenyonga would go to such lengths to hire seasoned lawyers for a convict, especially one who would not stick to the script he had been coached on to frame Kayanja.
As Sserugo testified, it was clear he was following the same script as Labib Khalifa, Alex Wakamala, and Martin Kagolo.
It should also be recalled that a phone matrix presented in court by D/ASP Bill Ndyamuhaki from the Police Cybercrime Department revealed that Aggrey Kinene, a personal assistant to Pastor Jackson Ssenyonga, had frequently called the youths, especially Reagan Ssentongo.
This phone matrix was submitted to court under oath, unlike the suspects who refused to testify under oath, seemingly because they had something to hide or feared being exposed by cross-examination.
Chief State Attorney Jonathan Muwaganya argued that the defense team was simply buying time. “My lord, they have had time since December last year. Their colleague Labib has testified, yet they claim these two are not ready despite all of them being on remand under the same circumstances.”
Sserugo’s co-accused—Reagan Ssentongo, Peter Sserugo, Israel Waiswa, Jamil Mwandha, Aggrey Kinene, Martins Kagolo, and Moses Tumwine (currently at large)—are slowly running out of time to walk free from this case, in which they are accused of orchestrating a plot to frame Pastor Robert Kayanja of Rubaga Miracle Centre Cathedral in a sodomy scandal.
Furthermore, Dr. Sam Kalungi, to whom the suspects were taken for examination on Pastor Ssenyonga’s orders, testified in court that he found no signs that the youths had been sodomized, which contradicted their claims.
