Pastor Kayanja threatens to sue NDA over defamation

KAMPALA, UGANDA: Pastor Robert Kayanja, the lead pastor at Miracle Centre Cathedral has threatened to sue the National Drugs Authority (NDA) over alleged defamation over the production of Tickoff acaricide.

Through his lawyers, Katende, Ssempebwa and Company Advocates, the senior pastor at the Rubaga-based church has given NDA and its spokesperson Mr Abiaz Rwamwiri 72 hours to retract a “defamatory” press release that accused him of being behind the production and sale of an acaricide which was tested and found with dangerous and banned chemicals.

“These false statements alleging that our client is involved in the production and distribution of counterfeit acaricides were unfounded as our client is not the owner, nor the manufacturer of the product in issue and there was no report published by the National Drug Authority to confirm the findings,” the lawyers say.

“Take notice that we hereby demand that you publically withdraw the said defamatory statements from your social media platforms inclusive of the Twitter accounts within 72 hours from the date of this notice,” the lawyers say in the February 1o notice of intention to sue.

According to the lawyers, Rwamiri’s statement and tweet damaged and continue to damage their client’s reputation as a senior citizen with international relations, adding that the “defamatory” allegations simply show that the authority had a personal vendetta against the Pastor.

The lawyers also demand that National Drug Authority apologises to Pastor Kayanja within 72 hours and for failure to do so, they will institute legal proceedings against NDA for the recovery of compensation for the damage caused to his reputation.

In a statement released on Tuesday, NDA said the chemicals were being mixed with animal feeds and mukene (silverfish) before being packaged without any expiry date, ingredient information or caution to users.

NDA further said Pastor Kayanja used his position to lure desperate farmers and that his intention was not only criminal but also intended to cheat Ugandans.

However, the Pastor on Thursday evening outrightly denied any wrongdoing and having mixed ‘mukene’ in the acaricide.
“I don’t know the lab they used to test our products. We have no mukene in our product. Our product is organic and we insist that every component there is designed from organ items,” he said.