Senior Pastor, former Member of Parliament, and gospel artiste Judith Babirye has come out groveling to the nation in search of forgiveness.
The singer in a viral video, head bowed, voice toned down, with Omusayi gwa yesu (one of her songs) amply playing in the background, cast a dejected look, a shameful pose, and spat out words calling on mercy, forgiveness, and pardon from everyone.
Looking far from the chubby self she had been while representing Buikwe District in Parliament, her new skin color yawningly different from her original, the background musical theme probably the only reminder of her previous lyrical inspirations both to the secular and religious crowds.
Judith Babirye went on and on about her mistakes, rubbing in her disgrace, and breaking down her transgressions.
“I come to you my brother, I come to you my sister, please forgive me. I regret and apologize to so many people I hurt with my mistake,” she rued.
She went on about her marriage, asking those that were hurt and wounded to forgive her.
“Please forgive me for the mistake,” she added, issuing a general call to believers, pastors, and the entire nation to forgive her.
“I want to apologize to Ms. Lukia Ntale, forgive me, I do not know how I can stress this but I am so sorry, what I did was not right, please find space in your heart to forgive me. Forgiveness is divine, I know it is not an easy thing but I beg you,” she cried.
Lukia Ntale is the wife to former Buikwe North Member of Parliament Paul Musoke Ssebulime with whom Judith Babirye secretly wedded before the marriage hit rocks barely 2 years later.
How things turned sour for Babirye
In 2018, Judith Babirye together with her fellow legislator Paul Musoke Ssebulime wedded in a traditional ceremony at a hotel in Entebbe.
The ceremony, filled with fanfare, pomp, and merrymaking was a discrete one and quite telling that it was performed at a neutral ground in Entebbe, far away from the glancing eyes of paparazzi and the keen looks of those that knew the couple.
The traditional wedding was as sure as day follows night proceeded with a church ceremony, where the couple sealed it and the two were to be man and wife without breaking, and this would last forever.
Alas, no sooner had the DJ wound up packing his musical tools, than the marriage developed complications.
Ssebulime’s wife Lukia Ntale came out and put up a spirited fight against the marriage, seeking to reclaim her position as the mother of Ssebulime’s kids.
She went further to seek a meeting with the parents of Judith Babirye whom she wanted to convey a message for Judith Babirye to dismiss herself from the marriage.
Ntale claimed that she had been legally married to Ssebulime for a decade and that Judith Babirye had presented herself as a friend to her husband only to end up in a wedding dress.
The fight championed by Ntale ensured that Judith Babirye neither had a breather in her new marriage nor her constituency, prompting the “ndi survivor simala gagenda” singer to flee to the USA for cold comfort.
That was the last of Judith Babirye’s presence in Uganda. With her absence, Ssebulime and Ntale kissed made up. They as well performed a traditional marriage ceremony in Buikwe albeit under maximum security.
In the closing months of the last year 2019 however, Ssebulime petitioned the high court family court to end his marriage with Judith Babirye saying that he had not seen her since 22 December 2018 and that she had subjected him to psychological torture among other things.
Musoke also accused Babirye of denying him sex saying that they last had sexual intercourse in August 2018.
Lady Justice Olive Kazaarwe Mukwaya of the family division of the High Court ruled that it was evident from Musoke’s petition that Babirye had not demonstrated any signs of commitment for the success of their marriage.
“There is no evidence of the respondent’s (Babirye) participation in efforts to reconcile with her husband. The petitioner did not know of his wife’s whereabouts for seven months that he waited before filing this petition. I am therefore satisfied that the petitioner has proved that this marriage should be dissolved on grounds of cruelty,” Lady Justice Mukwaya ruled.
Babirye however distanced herself from court proceedings and the court was never able to get her side of the story.
In January 2017, Babirye divorced her then-husband called Niiwo with whom they had one daughter between them.
