Media personality Sheila Gashumba has entered her father Frank Gashumba’s public row with Ugandan pastors, trading words on X with Pastor Robert Kayanja Jr of Miracle Centre Cathedral, Rubaga, on Tuesday night.
Sheila said critics had misrepresented her father as attacking Christianity. She argued that he had never questioned God, Jesus or miracles, but was taking aim at pastors who, in her words, stage fake miracles and press poor congregants for money every week.
“Some pastors are using the word of God to manipulate people,” she wrote.
She questioned why churches are not held to the same standards of financial transparency as companies, charities and hospitals, and objected to what she described as curses directed at her father and family from the pulpit.
To counter claims that her father had turned against the faith, Sheila said he remains a practising Catholic who attends Mass in both Kampala and Masaka, and that she herself was baptised, received Holy Communion and was confirmed at Christ the King Church in Kampala.
Kayanja Jr hits back
Kayanja Jr, one of the senior pastors at Miracle Centre, rejected claims that his father’s ministry fakes miracles or dodges accountability.
He pointed to the church’s charity work, including feeding communities in Karamoja, buying tractors for the region and supporting children’s education. He said the church keeps proper books and is audited by the Uganda Revenue Authority.
He also argued that pastors do not claim to heal anyone themselves. “Pastors don’t perform miracles,” he wrote, adding that his father has always said only Jesus heals.
Kayanja Jr then broadened the argument, saying other faiths are not subjected to the same public criticism. He referred to a September 2023 security incident at the church, which he linked to the ADF and Al-Shabaab, and complained that it had drawn little public outcry.
How it started
The row began when Frank Gashumba challenged pastors and prophets who claim healing powers to prove them in a hospital setting. He first offered Shs200 million, then raised it to Shs500 million, for any religious leader who could heal a critically ill patient at a major hospital such as Mulago or Nsambya.
Pastor Robert Kayanja was among those who responded, maintaining that the miracles associated with his ministry are genuine works of God. Gashumba has since said he was misunderstood, insisting he has never denied God’s existence and was only condemning pastors who use Jesus’ name to exploit the poor.
Other church leaders, including Bishop David Kiganda, have also weighed in, arguing that faith cannot be turned into a public cash contest.
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