Prime
Disbelief, confusion on Bugingo shooting
The car in which House of Prayer Ministries International Pastor Aloysius Bugingo (Inset) was traveling in at the time of the attack.
What you need to know:
- Pastor Bugingo survived after a bullet reportedly hit him in the back while Special Forces Command soldier, Corporal Richard Muhumuza, who was seated on the co-driver’s seat, was allegedly shot more than 10 times.
The reported shooting in which House of Prayer Ministries Senior Pastor Aloysius Bugingo was injured and his bodyguard killed in a city suburb on Tuesday night, has left the social media awash with conspiracy theories, sympathies, and mockery of the incident.
Pastor Bugingo survived after a bullet reportedly hit him in the back while Special Forces Command soldier, Corporal Richard Muhumuza, who was seated on the co-driver’s seat, was allegedly shot more than 10 times.
Pastor Bugingo managed to drive Cpl Muhumuza to Mulago hospital where he was pronounced dead on arrival.
The narrative of how the pastor escaped the shooting and managed to drive the deceased to the hospital has become a subject of debate.
Pastor Bugingo’s employees said he told them that when the shooter started firing, he heard a voice commanding him to duck below the steering wheel, which he instantly did.
His employees said it was the voice they believed to be spiritual that helped him dodge the raining bullets.
Some social media users doubted that the shooter couldn’t have missed him yet he was firing at close range.
They doubted that the pastor even had a wound in the back as alleged. Other social media activists wondered why Pastor Bugingo didn’t drive straight to the police, but to the hospital.
The conspiracy theories gained strength when it came to the deceased’s profession and role in the church. The deceased was known to many as an elder in the ministry and a friend to Pastor Bugingo.
In the first interview to the media hours after the incident, Pastor Bugingo referred to the deceased as an elder in his church. Later security agencies identified him as a soldier, who had been deployed to guard the pastor.
One former State House employee used his Twitter account to ask why a pastor is protected by a military unit that is only supposed to protect the president and strategic facilities.
Then a former powerful military general, now retired, responded that the former State House employee was asking a wrong question.
The retired general said he should have asked who Pastor Bugingo is “because the law allows one to be both a pastor and intelligence officer, or a commander.”
