From Scientology to fake buddhist monks, religion has always
been used as a cloak by the unscrupulous to prey on the most
vulnerable.
Uganda pastor denies miracle scam
A Uganda-based preacher has denied charges he tried to import an
electric shock machine to make people believe he could pass on the
Holy Spirit.
"This is a toy. It was sent for my daughters' birthday," Ghanaian
Kojo Nana Obiri-Yeboah told the BBC.
The machine was seized at Entebbe airport and police are
investigating.
There has been a massive growth in churches set up by charismatic
preachers in Africa in recent years, amid fears some could be
fraudsters.
The pastor told the BBC that during his prayers, members of the
congregation "act as the spirit comes in them".
The website of the company Yigal Mesika, which makes the "Electric
Touch" machine, among other magic tricks, says: "Charge a spoon,
keys or coins and watch as it shocks a volunteer!
"They will believe you have supernatural powers!"
Police report
The person doing the trick wears the machine and gets an electric
charge, which they can transfer to people or objects.
Uganda's Ethics and Integrity Minister James Nsaba Buturo has asked
police for a report into the activities of churches, such as Mr
Obiri-Yeboah's We Are One ministry, following several charges of
impropriety.
"We feel there is a need for a policy on religion," he told the
BBC's Network Africa programme.
He denied the government was interfering in people's private
lives.
"When matters go to impinging on the stability of the country, I
think the government gets interested."
When the machine was seized, some thought the machine was a piece
of bomb-making equipment.
Some fear that some preachers are taking advantage of poor,
illiterate people, by asking them for financial contributions in
the belief that in return, they would be blessed and become
rich.
They rarely have any formal religious training - usually they set
up a church and say they have been touched by God.
But Mr Buturo said that most of the new churches, known in Uganda
as "balokole" were "contributing to the stability of our
country".