The defence in the long-running case involving Pastor Robert Kayanja and nine young men has withdrawn a key witness, claiming he may have been influenced to deliberately stay away from court.
The development came on Wednesday at Mwanga II Magistrate’s Court in Mengo as the defence closed its case after failing to secure the appearance of the witness it had expected to rely on to explain disputed translations and transcriptions of evidence, comprising videos and voice notes shared between Kayanja and some of the accused boys.
Defence lawyer Bernard told Principal Magistrate Adams Byarugaba that the lawyers had made several attempts to contact the witness, but he was no longer answering their calls.
The defence instead met Fatima Mbabazi, a business liaison officer in the external department of Makerere College of Education, in an attempt to establish the status of the disputed translation.
Bernard told court that they discovered Mbabazi was not at Makerere when the translation was done and had neither authored nor participated in the translation process. He also said she was not the official custodian of the documents.
Mbabazi then attempted to contact the original witness, whose name was not revealed, while in the presence of the defence lawyers, but he again failed to answer.
It was at that point that the defence raised the possibility that the witness had been influenced and was deliberately avoiding court.
Bernard said although the court had powers to compel the witness to appear, the defence had lost confidence in him and no longer trusted him to give truthful evidence.
After consulting the accused persons, the defence opted to withdraw the witness and close its case, saying the evidence already before court was sufficient.
The nine accused persons are facing charges arising from allegations made against Kayanja, including accusations linked to sodomy, trespass and giving false information to police. They have denied the allegations.
The witness dispute followed an earlier battle over audio and video recordings which the defence wanted to have freshly translated and transcribed through Uganda Broadcasting Corporation.
The prosecution objected to the proposed UBC witness, arguing that the defence had already disclosed translations prepared through Makerere University and should proceed with the witness it had originally identified.
Magistrate Byarugaba subsequently rejected the attempt to introduce the new UBC witness at that stage of the trial.
When the original witness failed to appear, the defence decided not to pursue him further.
The State, led by prosecutor Jonathan Muwaganya, did not object to the closure of the defence case.
Muwaganya said the decision to proceed with a defence witness rested with the defence, while urging court to bring the long-running trial to an end.
The defence asked for one month to prepare its written submissions, citing the involvement of another lawyer and the busy schedules of the legal team.
With the hearing of defence witnesses now complete, the case moves to written submissions, after which the parties may orally highlight their arguments before court.
Magistrate Byarugaba adjourned the matter to December 9, 2026.
The defence’s claim that the witness may have been influenced remains an allegation and was not established by the court.
