Andy – What is baseless about all my reports? When this one surfaced, I indicated that it might not be accurate and quickly reported the facts as they became known.

Who did I name as a murderer?

Whether intended as a hoax, it was a false report planted by a former founder of Integrity Uganda. Planting a false report may have many motives but the person making the initial report had to know it was false. A quote was made up and attributed to a specific person and an affiliation was attributed which was not true. Someone who originally made it up knew it and said it anyway.

Apparently, someone made up the gay angle, perhaps assuming bloggers would report it falsely, thus causing their credibility to be questioned.

While it’s true that someone did make up the gay angle, there is absolutely no evidence as yet re who or why. Yes, it could have been some internet savvy person with a secret desire to damage credibility. But, it’s just as likely that it was a mistake. Could it have been Colin Coward’s?

Box Turtle provided a link to a news story that said that police spokewoman Judith Nabakooba said the body was believed to be that of Pascal Kashushu. Colin said that Judith Nabakooba identified the head as Pasikali Kashusbe. I’ve been looking for the story where she actually identified the head and, as yet, I can’t find it. So I wonder if Colin maybe got caught up playing ‘connect the dots’ and took Nabakooba’s ‘believed to be’ and heard ‘identified’.

“Connect the dots” would have supported this presumption. Anti-gay foul play was already suspected in the disappearance of the man whose missing status inspired the search. There was the timing of the Martyr’s Day remembrance. Pasikali did go missing. The latrine was not far from where he worked. (On a TV cop show, the detective would be shouting “C’mon, man, we already KNOW what happened; now we just have to prove it.”)

And the web, whether the story is true or false, whether the falseness is innocent or contrived…the web is a web and the compelling stories or opinions travel at lightning speed. (And, just like that cop show, any voices that speak against the prevailing theory are shouted down. We unconsciously elevate it to ‘fact’ status.) I’m not sure if I’m the only one who suggested that we were jumping to a conclusion but I recall three responses. One was an appeal to Box Turtle’s record of credibility; another simply responded “Connect the Dots”; still another questioned ‘why must you always take the other side?”. (BTW: Box Turtle IS credible but even credible people are fallible; ‘connect the dots’ IS a logical process but is sometimes impacted by bias; the ‘why must you always take the other side’ approach plays well in a debate but not on a fact-finding mission.)

Following the web-trail, it seems that Colin may have inadvertently started this. Box Turtle picked it up from him. Warren seems to have picked it up from Box Turtle. As I’ve scanned the sites that subsequently ran with this story, most seemed to cite either Box Turtle or Warren.

Please, I am not attempting to disparage the credibility of Box Turtle, of Warren or even of Colin. I’m not even sure if Colin was the inadvertent originator of the false story. His article provided no links so I don’t know if he actually had a source that said that Nabakooba identifed the head as Pasikali’s. BUT, if the story DID originate with a mistaken word choice and conclusion by Colin, THEN our subsequent theories of a hoax and all the possible motives behind it are without merit.

I sincerely hope that we’ll be able to uncover how this bogus report got started. If it was a purposeful hoax, I want to know that. It will help me to understand the nature of who it is we’re dealing with. And if it was an honest mistake, I hope that we’ll take from it whatever lessons we can.

A hoax is something intended to deceive or defraud. By continuing to refer to it as a hoax (rather than find another word or qualify with ‘possible’ hoax) , you run the risk of being caught in hasty judgement if it would turn out that there was no ‘intent to deceive or defraud’…if it turns out that someone mistakenly read into the events and circumstances.

Stick with the smug, though. It served you well the first time around.

….just because we are friendly and hospitable to outsiders, doesn’t mean that we will sit meekly and do nothing when our culture and traditions is under foreign attack.

Oh dear… so does that mean Uganda is going to declare war on Canada, the United States, Great Britian, Germany and most of the rest of western and northern Europe? Sure would do away with the hypocrisy of the situation and all those states could end their donations to Uganda.

Please, I am not attempting to disparage the credibility of Box Turtle, of Warren …

Don’t worry. There’s no risk of that.

When we very publicly and strongly announced the hoax, we gained credibility rather than lost it. People trust you more when you have the integrity to admit a mistake.

Without waiting for 18 months.

I think the likelihood of anti-gay violence is pretty great in Uganda and I fear that we might be reporting a real situation sooner than later.

Dear Warren,

Your comment above sounds more like a wish and an attempt to cover-up your embarassing “goofery”. If Frank Mugisha and other pro-gay puppet commentators are able to live in Uganda and speak openly about the “greatness of homosexuality” without being hanged, drawn and quartered, then I will say that Ugandans are peaceful hospitable people and you will have to wait for eternity to report any genuine case of mass violence against practitioners of gayism. BTW, just because we are friendly and hospitable to outsiders, doesn’t mean that we will sit meekly and do nothing when our culture and traditions is under foreign attack.

No one knows for sure, and we may never know, who was responsible for the death of this man.

The reason I quickly included the updates was to be candid with the facts. I did not say Ssempa or his students was responsible. Look again, I did not say this anywhere.

I did say that the rhetoric surely was inflamatory and if deaths occur, they would not be far away from what Christians were calling for there. The documentarian said the students were from Makerere’s youth group. And Ssempa produced a video where he featured a man calling for death to gays. I am not interpreting anything there, simply reporting it. Your tactic here is to take the attention off of the awful things Ssempa and followers say and put it on this report which turned out to be at least partly false.

What you cannot deny is the actual words of those I quoted.

No one knows for sure, and we may never know, who was responsible for the death of this man.

The reason I quickly included the updates was to be candid with the facts. I did not say Ssempa or his students was responsible. Look again, I did not say this anywhere.

I did say that the rhetoric surely was inflamatory and if deaths occur, they would not be far away from what Christians were calling for there. The documentarian said the students were from Makerere’s youth group. And Ssempa produced a video where he featured a man calling for death to gays. I am not interpreting anything there, simply reporting it. Your tactic here is to take the attention off of the awful things Ssempa and followers say and put it on this report which turned out to be at least partly false.

What you cannot deny is the actual words of those I quoted.