Entebbe Magistrates Court has charged the founder of House of Prayer Ministries and proprietor of Salt Media, Pastor Aloysious Bugingo and his new fianceé Suzan Makula Nantaba with three counts contrary to the Marriage Act.
Bugingo and Makula were dragged to Court by city lawyer Male Mabirizi for contracting Marriage by customary Law yet the pastor is still married to Teddy Bugingo.
The Court presided over by the Grade One Magistrate Stella Okwong Paculal ordered the duo to appear in Court on January 21, 2022.
On 20th December 2003 Bugingo got married to Teddy Naluswa Bugingo vide certificate number 376 through Church marriage at Victory Christian Center, Ndeeba after which the marriage was solemnized and it still subsists.
In 2019, Bugingo filed a divorce case at Kajjansi Chief Magistrates’ Court against his wife and sought for dissolution of their marriage. He accused Naluswa of being disrespectful to him. In her response to the divorce case, Naluswa maintains that she has never been disrespectful to Bugingo since they walked down the aisle many years ago.
However on 7th December 2021, Bugingo and Makula conducted a customary marriage at Kawuku, Katabi town council, Wakiso district contrary to Marriage Act.
According to the Act, Section 42 states that Any person who, being unmarried, goes through the ceremony of marriage with a person whom he or she knows to be married to another person, commits an offense and is liable on conviction to imprisonment for a period not exceeding five years.
Section 50 states that “Any person who, having contracted marriage under this Act or any modification or reenactment of this Act, during the continuance of that marriage contracts a marriage in accordance with customary law, commits an offense and is liable on conviction to imprisonment for a period not exceeding five years.”
Bugingo was a fortnight ago summoned to appear at Kawempe Police Station to answer criminal charges of contracting a new marriage.
