Pastor loses bid to have child trafficking charge dropped
Pastor Isma Buyinza Ssekabira with Felister Namaganda in Jinja Court recently. PHOTO | TAUSI NAKATO
What you need to know:
- Pastor Ssekabira of Deliverance and Healing Ministry in Ganda Village, Nansana Municipality, Wakiso District, was charged with child trafficking, leading to the sacrifice of four-year-old Isabella Trinity Nakisuyi in 2021.
The High Court in Jinja City has dismissed an application by Pastor Isma Buyinza Ssekabira aka Israel of a Pentecostal Church, saying it was wrongly timed.
Pastor Ssekabira of Deliverance and Healing Ministry in Ganda Village, Nansana Municipality, Wakiso District, was charged with child trafficking, leading to the sacrifice of four-year-old Isabella Trinity Nakisuyi in 2021.
Mr Ssekabira is jointly charged with Pastor Joseph Sserubiri and his girlfriend Felista Namaganda.
On August 2, 2023, Justice Winfred Nabisinde sentenced Pastor Sserubiri to life imprisonment for the murder and 30 years for trafficking in children after he pleaded guilty to both counts.
Ms Namaganda and Pastor Ssekabira pleaded not guilty, prompting Justice Nabisinde to fix the hearing of their case to last Friday when she ruled that the co-accused’s application was brought to her Court’s attention when the matter was (already) fixed for hearing.
“I have found out that the application has no merit and has been overtaken by events. The trial will continue to its logical conclusion,” she ruled, before adjourning proceedings to August 21 (today).
Pastor Ssekabira and Ms Namaganda face charges related to trafficking in children and child sacrifice respectively.
“On Monday (today), prepare to come with an amended charge sheet and witnesses to kick start the hearing of these charges because the case is already in advanced stages,’’ Justice Nabisinde added.
Court heard that Pastor Ssekabira on September 30, 2021, while in Kampala, communicated with Pastor Sserubiri and convinced him to do an act of child trafficking in persons and sacrifice a human being in order to enlarge the Church’s yet-to-be-established branch in Jinja.
In her June 2, 2023 letter addressed to the Jinja Chief Magistrate’s Court, the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP), Ms Jane Frances Abodo, discontinued charges of trafficking in persons contrary to Section 8(b) of the prevention of trafficking in persons Act (2009) against Pastor Ssekabira.
However, the Senior State Attorney, Ms Shallotte Kamusiime, told Court that the withdrawal form was tendered after the applicant and his co-defendants had been committed to High Court for trial.
“The law clearly stipulates the procedure for discontinuing proceedings before all Courts by DPP. The withdrawal form does not apply to matters that are already committed to the High Court; also, the (withdraw) form was addressed to the Chief Magistrate, not your Court which has no business to review it,” Ms Kamusiime submitted.
The deceased, who was a daughter to Mr John Mulodi and Ms Annet Nakisasa, went missing from her parents’ home in Kakira Cell in Jinja District on September 30, 2021.
However, residents asked the Police to speak to Mr Sserubiri and Ms Namaganda as persons of interest.
The couple later led detectives to the shores of Lake Victoria where Nakisuyi’s skull was found, and later to a sugarcane plantation where her decomposing torso was located.
