Luweero reverend acquitted after battling six-year defilement case

Rev Canon Kezekiah Kalule, 68, has finally regained freedom from the 'jaws of the devil' that denied him an official retirement from the Church three years ago as he battled a charge of aggravated defilement at the High Court in Luweero District.
High Court Judge Damalie N. Lwanga on Thursday acquitted Rev Kalule after prosecution failed to prove the case beyond reasonable doubt.
Since 2018 when he was arrested and committed to High Court for allegedly defiling a girl under his custody, Rev Can Kalule who is already above the retirement age for the Anglican clergy was until June 15, 2023 a suspect and not counted among the Diocesan Clergy, pending clearance from court, a case that almost shook the foundations of the Anglican Church in Luweero.
In her 15-page judgment, Justice Lwanga found several grave inconsistencies in the reports that the victim gave to the Police including the contradicting statement about who was responsible for her pregnancy.
“Her conduct of implicating two different people in the defilement and paternity of her child in statements made more than one month apart shows untruthfulness in regard to the identity of her defiler,” Justice Lwanga noted. 
Her conduct appears to suggest that what she told police would depend on who accompanied her. On the occasion when she was accompanied to police by the accused cleric, she told police that she had only had sex with Emma Kalema, according to a statement recorded on July 7, 2018.

It was in her second statement recorded more than a month apart on when the victim was escorted to police by Compassion International officials that she told police how the accused Rev Kalule had defiled her repeatedly resulting into the pregnancy.
“The victim must have told lies in one of the police statements whose contents are contradictory. She lied to Court about when she made the statements. This goes to the victim’s credibility,” the judge noted.
“While proof of defilement does not depend of the results obtained after a DNA test as this would only qualify the paternity of the baby, a defence witness tendered in Court a DNA report that excluded the accused from paternity of the victim’s child. The conclusion given is that the results from the analysis do not support the proposition that the accused is the biological father of the child. But the DNA test is not required to prove defilement,” she added.
The judgement further noted that the testimony of the third prosecution witness contradicts that of the victim on where and how the victim was sleeping in the accused’s house. While the victim in her evidence said she always slept alone in her bedroom both in Kikyusa and Luteete villages, and that each of the girls had own bedrooms, during cross examination one of the witnesses revealed that the victim used to sleep on a decked bed in the same room with another girl identified as Namujju.
“This is a contradiction in the prosecution evidence and the evidence of PW3 on this aspect is more consistent with the defence evidence that the victim used to share a bedroom with other girls,” the judge noted.
Other inconsistencies include the denial by the victim of her return to police was after one month. She only changed her position after the two police statements were shown to her which she confirmed.
While summing up the judgement, the assessor, Ms Winnie Nambi, gave her opinion that prosecution had proved its case beyond reasonable doubt and advised that the accused was guilty and should be convicted.
However, Justice Lwanga noted that having found that the ingredient of participation of the accused person in performing a sexual act was not proved beyond reasonable doubt, departed from the assessor’s opinion.
“I note that the assessor treated the contradictions in the prosecution case which I found to be grave as minor. She also did not address the issue of credibility of the victim who was the key witness, which I found wanting,” she said, concluding that; “I find that the prosecution has failed to prove the case beyond reasonable doubt. He is accordingly acquitted of the offence of aggravated defilement.”
Rev Can Lwanga speaks out
Outside Court, Rev Lwanga said God was his witness because the Church abandoned him at a time he needed its support.
“The Church claimed that the case was about an individual and not the Church. I will not go after my accusers but I know very well that they were within. It was a Church worker whom we expelled that possibly came up with this case. I wanted to retire honorably but this did not happen,” he said briefly in an interview.
Rev Can Kezekiah was arrested in 2018 while attached to Luteete Archdeaconry as the Archdeacon under the Luweero Anglican Diocese. He was later remanded to Nakasongola government prison in Nakasongola District. He wants the Church to correct his service record as he retires.