Pr Ssempa hits back at government over draft accountability policy for churches

A section of born again church leaders has accused the Directorate of Ethics and Integrity of promoting a discriminatory draft policy they say is targeting a specific group of people.

The Directorate is currently validating the Religious Faith-Based Organizations policy that will foster a culture of accountability, provide a streamlined registration process for all religious Faith Organizations (RFOs) in Uganda.

The policy is also intended to facilitate legal and procedural changes to empower RFOs to contribute effectively to our nation’s development, promote unity amidst diversity, and establish standards that inspire confidence among all stakeholders.

Speaking to KFM, Pastor Martin Ssempa, the founder Makerere Community Church said the policy also has expectations of governing them through a government executive appointee of a Minister and yet this does not apply to others.

‘It is really discriminatory because you are having them managed by competitors, so I don’t think that will work. We also need to afford born again the ability to self-govern and we should be left to enjoy our constitutional freedom of worship as is the case for other religious groups”,. Pr. Ssempa said.

Meanwhile, the Directorate’s Permanent Secretary, Mr. Alex Okello says the policy will only enforce accountability of what church leaders do.

‘’What the policy is talking about is total accountability, which is about all leaders everywhere both in government and politics. That is the accountability that the document is looking for, everybody should be accountable for whatever they do”, Mr. Okello said.

“Accountability for money in churches is only a small thing, the most important thing why there must be accountability is because there are resources involved and so if the churches become a den of thieves as Jesus said will it not be necessary to over turn tables there?” Mr. Okello added.

Written by Mike Sebalu