NYARUGENGE - Pastor Josephine Mutesi of Jehovanis Church in Kimisagara was last week arraigned before Nyarugenge Court of Higher Instance to answer charges of embezzlement and abuse of office.

The Pastor was dragged to court by some church members.

According to our sources, Mutesi who is Pastor at the Nyakabanda-based church in Nyarugenge District is accused of withdrawing money from the church’s coffers without authorisation from the signatories.

She is also accused of forging the signatures of the signatories to have access to the funds totalling to Rfw1.8 million on January 22, and 28, this year.

Complaints by church members started after the congregation mobilized the funds to buy a house which could later be a church building. The building was to house about 900 members.

The nine founding members then started investigating her and later reported the matter Criminal to the Investigation Department.

"We are handling the case. We have all the information but we cannot share everything with the media at this stage,” Gallican Rukaka, the prosecutor at Nyarugenge Court told The New Times.

On April 14, when the pastor reported to court, her lawyer pleaded for enough time to study the file to be able to answer all charges against her client.

The court ruled that the accused report to court on September 02, 2009.

"Pastor Mutesi is still running the church. However, she is heading it illegally since we asked her to resign long ago,” Martin Kanamugire one of the church elders complained.

Efforts to contact the pastor were futile as her phone went unanswered for many hours yesterday.

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