By Joachim Twino
Three youth leaders representing tens of thousands, who claim to have been defrauded by the officials of Version 86 Youth for National Transformation which is an affiliate of Ps Robert Kayanja’s Rubaga Miracle Center Church, have been assaulted and forcefully blocked from accessing the powerful pastor’s office in Rubaga. The youthful activists, who stormed RMC church premises seeking recovery of Shs5bn they claim Kayanja in total collected from different youth groups, included Yosia Mugajju, David Katokabo and Daniel Timugaya. The trio works with a Mengo-based NGO called Youth Organization Network (YON) which, according to the victims’ lawyer Ladislaus Rwakafuzi, is the umbrella body to which many of the defrauded young people subscribe. “We had wanted to meet the pastor personally and hear from him as to why the jobs he promised haven’t come through and why he disappeared from our members immediately after getting the Shs50,000 each of them contributed,” Yosia Mugajju, the YON team leader told reporters during a Thursday press conference in Kampala. “We have been writing letters to him but his bouncers always intercept them and they forcefully chase us away each time we tried to go meet him. This is why we said this time we are going to meet him come what may. But as we waited, his bouncers and assistants came and chased us. They acted improperly because they got the letter we had delivered for him from Counsel Rwakafuzi but they refused to acknowledge receipt which left us shocked.” Mugajju, who was flanked by his two other colleagues, said they had now decided to devise alternative ways of notifying Ps Kayanja of their members’ grievances and his obligation to refund the Shs5bn. “The idea was he would use his connections to the President to get them funding for their business ideas but instead he took their Shs50,000 from each and thereafter turned his back on them yet the idea was the president would support these groups after elections,” Mugajju said adding that even if the jobs Kayanja expected haven’t materialized, the man of God still has an obligation to call another meeting and account to the young people. “You know how many of them are unemployed and to take their Shs50,000 just like that isn’t good for a person of Kayanja’s status. He gave them false hope that they would get jobs and he is now nowhere to explain.” Mugajju said whereas a good number of the duped youths are members of Kayanja’s RMC, many others aren’t. He said they have heaps of receipts that Kayanja’s staff at the Church issued to whoever paid the Shs50,000. “They were tricked to form groups of 10 members and each group paid Shs500,000 which would be receipted and we have all the receipts in case there is any denial,” Mugajju explained. He threatened to open up assault cases at police if Kayanja’s bouncers don’t stop manhandling them each time they go to RMC trying to have audience with him. “We know he is a big man of great connections but we won’t fear him because our weapon is the truthfulness of the strong claims we have against him on behalf of the young people.” He explained that YON was formed to purposely help get remedy for voiceless young people who always get aggressed by powerful people like Kayanja. He also clarified on earlier media reports showing that those claimants against Kayanja are NRM youth leaders. “That is not true. These are Ugandan youths and let’s not put politics in this because there is none,” Mugajju explained. The trio explained that after the Namboole Version 86 Mentorship and Sponsorship Conference held on 29th May 2015, Kayanja showed more clout when he organized a follow up event at Kololo Airstrip on 10th January at which the President once again came and spoke along with other inspirational speakers like Vision Group’s Robert Kabushenga, KCCA’s Jennifer Musisi and Speaker Rebecca Kadaga. “The issue of the youth contributing money first emerged at Kololo after the big people had left otherwise at Namboole, all he said was that we want to organize you to access government funds under YLP,” Mugajju recalls.
VISION SCRIBE EXPLAINS;
According to Vision Group journalist, Jackie Nalubwama who published a couple of promotional stuff for Kayanja’s conferences at Kololo and Namboole, V86 targeted mostly youths who were born or started P1 in 1986 as Museveni started his tenure as President. According to the same Jackie Nalubwama herself a Christian youth, Kwagalana group members were also identified as potential sources of inspiration for the young people during the Kololo conference. She also discloses that Trade Minister Amelia Kyambadde and technology expert Jaward Qureshi are some of the other high profile figures Kayanja had earmarked as potential role models to inspire the young people to become economically successful. Nalubwama also confirms our earlier reporting that TV personality and city male model Canary Mugume was heavily involved in the V86 scheme because he isn’t only close to Kayanja but was also the Kololo and Namboole conference organizing committee chairman. She quotes Mugume to have told her the original plan was to have the Namboole conference run from 8am to 8am next day. Canary Mugume was only 20 years then, according to Nalubwama. Mugajju claims that in conceiving the idea of Version 86, Kayanja wasn’t genuinely concerned about the jobless young people “but only wanted to increase his relevance to the President whose image is now being spoilt because the young people can’t believe the President’s name was used to extract Shs50,000 from each of them.” Multiple sources say Kayanja confessed God had spoken to him about this V86 vision and thereafter proceeded to market the same to Museveni claiming it was divinely inspired. Mugajju suspects that Kayanja could have resorted to asking each member to pay Shs50,000 after getting disappointed when Museveni referred his funding request to Gender PS Pius Bigirimana as opposed to giving cash from his State House budget. “You know those ministry things are very bureaucratic and I think Kayanja didn’t want to lose face that his thing had failed and genuinely resorted to fundraising from within the very poor youths that required urgent help,” Mugajju explained during the Thursday afternoon news conference in Kampala. “He may not be such a very bad man but the problem is those guys at his reception who are arrogant and think they are there to shield him from meeting people. Can you imagine they even had guts to proudly ask us who are you?” Unconfirmed reports indicated that the panicky RMC management had, following our Wednesday story, worked out a schedule to begin refunding the Shs5bn city lawyer Rwakafuzi claims was severally extracted from the different poverty-stricken youth groups.
BACKGROUND;
The contextual background to the story can be found in this comprehensive report that we published on this news website on Wednesday afternoon. Titled ‘PS KAYANJA IN TROUBLE AS ANGRY NRM YOUTHS UNLEASH BESIGYE LAWYER RWAKAFUZI TO RECOVER THEIR SHS5BN,’ our Wednesday story read as follows;
OUR EARLIER STORY
When he invited the President to speak to a mammoth crowd of NRM-leaning youth leaders he gathered at Namboole stadium in May 2015, Ps Robert Kayanja didn’t know what awaited him in the long term. The flamboyant Rubaga Miracle Center Pastor says on 29th May 2018, the President drove to Namboole and delivered a lecture in which he sought to impact the youths’ attitude towards self-employment and job creation. Kayanja, a big name Pentecostal Pastor, confirms that not less than 100,000 youth leaders thronged Namboole that day to listen to the President and other inspirational speakers. Many believed this initiative would rival Robert Kabushenga’s Pakasa seminars. The Pastor further confirms that the 100,000 leaders at Namboole represented poor unemployed youths from all districts of Uganda. He adds that the President in his address that day directed Gender Ministry PS Pius Bigirimana to find time and sit with a delegation from his Rubaga Miracle Center Cathedral ministries to work out a formula and ways in which this Kayanja group would benefit from the hundreds of billions availed under the Youth Livelihood Program (YLP). Kayanja admits working with TV personality and city model Canary Mugume to found the anti-poverty pressure group called “Version 86 Youth for National Transformation” which the President consciously launched that day. In one of his correspondences on this matter, Kayanja explains that the idea was to provide the young people “with mentorship, enablement for job creation activities [whatever that means] and possible sponsorship for their income generating activities.”
PERFECT TIMING;
The timing of the group is indicative of many things not least of which is the fact the flamboyant Pastor is shrewd and knows when to cash in. And here is why: the timing coincided with the politically very desperate times President Museveni found himself facing at that time. John Patrick Amama Mbabazi, his defacto number 2 for many decades, had fallen out with him and launched his presidential bid for 2016. He accused Museveni of “overstaying in power, nursing a tired nation, failing on job creation and clearly failing to turn Uganda into a 21st century nation state.” His message and the momentum he created in especially the media space was initially considered very inspiring to many young people that had hitherto been loyal supporters of President Museveni. Led by Adam Luzindana, the economically destitute young men and women of the NRM coalesced around what they called the “NRM POOR YOUTH MOVEMENT” and desire for decent employment was one of their key grievances. Then powerful IGP Gen Kayihura came in with his crime preventers’ outfit under which he mobilized many young people but it still didn’t kill off the Mbabazi momentum at least going by the media visibility the poor youth group enjoyed. Different people, including Odrek Rwabwogo, tried different approaches to counter the JPAM group and Kayanja, widely considered by State House to be very credible and vastly networked, came up with his “Version 86 [V86],” which Mr. Yoweri Museveni cheerfully embraced. The President’s enthusiasm towards this group was clearly on display in the way he addressed the young people at Namboole. Kayanja maintains the number exceeded 100,000 in attendance that day. Being one that is greatly revered by the President’s wife and daughters, the Namboole event increased Kayanja’s political relevancy in the Museveni household.
BAGGING SHS5BN;
Ironically even when there was a commitment by the President to have Bigirimana fund the group members’ ideas turning them into economically viable enterprises, Kayanja went ahead writing letters soliciting for funding for the group members’ activities. Renowned for his fascination with material things, Ps Kayanja didn’t stop at that. He organized the young people into groups of 10 members each and set up a liaison desk at his Rubaga Miracle Center Cathedral. The young people were taken through seminars on job creation and successful entrepreneurship whereafter they were asked to register their groups to officially become members of V86. To become fully registered, each group was asked to pay Shs500,000 which made them members. According to big name city human rights lawyer Ladislaus Rwakafuzi, whom the now much tormented young people have since instructed to sue Kayanja, the RMC boss collected not less than Shs5bn from the different groups each paying Shs0.5m as sternly required by Kayanja himself. The idea was that this money would be consolidated into a pool out of which members would be lent inexpensive capital to start their own business enterprises. In his one page notice to Kayanja, Rwakafuzi, who informed this news website he has been instructed to recover the money, requires that the Pastor quickly explains why he didn’t deliver his promises yet he got the money from thousands of these poverty-stricken youths. In case he has no explanation or accountability, Rwakafuzi who is famous for representing such poor litigant groups advises Kayanja to minimize damage to his good name by quickly refunding the Shs5bn or else prepare to meet his accusers in Court. It’s unlikely the Pastor, who has lately not being doing very financially having started many unsuccessful media projects, will be able to readily part with Shs5bn as demanded by Rwakafuzi. The prominent city lawyer revealed to this news website that Kayanja’s victims came to his office and narrated their ordeal while seeking his legal services since he has lately distinguished himself as the poor man’s lawyer. Rwakafuzi was approached by David Katokabo, Yosia Mugajju and Owen Agaba who represented the rest of the victims. The young people now regret that all the trust they had in Kayanja is now gone because of the very painful ordeal they have endured since May 2015 when their money was first taken them. Besides being a poor man’s lawyer, the very down to earth Rwakafuzi also represents Dr. Kizza Besigye in many court cases. For comments, call/text/whatsapp us on 0703164755!
