The court mediation process that is meant to reconcile Pastor Aloysius Bugingo and his estranged wife Teddy Naluswa has failed.
According to a report filed by the New Vision newspaper, a source privy to the mediation said the process has hit a dead end. High court Family Division presided over by Justice Joseph Murangira has since set January 25th, next year to hear the case.
Teddy had made several attempts to have the matter resolved but she has not been successful. Also, on April 29, Justice Murangira directed Bugingo to first consider the option of mediation before the case should be heard. Bishop Joshua Lwere was named as the mediator.
However, Pastor Bugingo and his lawyer rejected the proposed mediator accusing him of bias, therefore, leading to the failure of the first mediation process.
According to Bugingo’s lawyer, Ronald Ruhinda, Bishop Lwere is a biased mediator and an interested party.
Lwere is the general overseer of the National Fellowship of the Born-again of the Pentecostal Churches of Uganda. He is also the founder and senior pastor of Grace Assembly.
The second mediator, the Executive Director of the Uganda National Roads Authority, Allen Kagina, has also failed to make headway in reconciling the couple.
Court mediation is a private process where a neutral third-party person helps the involved parties in discussing and trying to resolve the dispute. Whereas there can be mediation, the process can remain voluntary in that the parties are not required to come to an agreement.
Bugingo filed a divorce case in 2019 at Kajjansi Magistrate court in Kampala against his wife and sought dissolution of their marriage.
Naluswa opposed the dissolution of their marriage, saying what God has already put together no person can separate.
