The High Court in Kampala has handed a 40-year imprisonment term to a born-again prophet who turned a 17-year-old follower into his wife, fathered twins with her, and infected her with HIV/AIDS, yet he was in a sexual relationship with the victim's mother and had also fathered two children with the mother.
35-year-old Prophet Elijah James Kimera, of Faith Centre Church of All Nations at Lusanja in Wakiso has been sentenced by High Court Judge Margaret Mutonyi, who further learned that he impregnated the victim too, and fathered twins with her before turning both mother and daughter as his co-wives.
The court relied on evidence adduced by the prosecution, including testimonies from the mother who had testified that as a member of the said church, she introduced her daughter a senior three student to prophet Elijah Kimera for spiritual guidance, and the daughter later became a choir member.
The evidence further shows that it was during this time that prophet Elijah had sexual intercourse with the victim in the car in the church compound and that the said abuse continued until the victim became pregnant and gave birth to twins.
While handing him the imprisonment term, Justice Mutonyi ruled that the pastor needed a custodial sentence since he had committed an abomination in the African culture to birth children with a mother and her daughter on top of turning into co-wives.
Prosecution revealed that the disgruntled pastor had claimed to not know the whereabouts of the victim until the victim was rescued with her kids detained in his church.
Justice Mutonyi declined to have mercy on Pastor Elijah Kimera despite having pleaded guilty to the charge of Defilement and asking for forgiveness because he only pleaded guilty and claimed to be remorseful, after learning that police had recovered the victim hidden in his church.
The judge further described the pastor as a false prophet who had sex on the sacred ground of church and that his remorse after being exposed was only aimed at manipulating the court into giving him a lenient sentence.
Justice Mutonyi further wondered how the said pastor continued to cohabit with the victim until she came of age last year after he was granted bail and that he needed a deterrent sentence because it was the duty of the court to protect underage girls from sexual predators.
In criminal sessions, 70% of listed cases are for aggravated defilement.
Justice Mutonyi noted that Defilement at church is like Defilement at home because pastors are like spiritual parents who abuse the trust that their followers entrust in them.
"Relatives will live with trauma because the mother and the daughter had children from the same man due to his reckless sexual behavior and on top of that infected them with a deadly disease." Justice Mutonyi ruled.
