The couple was marched to the residence of Local Council (LC) 1 officials, who freed them, pending a hearing, but the 23-year-old man has since vanished.
He is reportedly hiding at a friend’s place in the same village, while the woman, a divorcee, has been taken in by the mother.
With pressure from the community and police on his family, the suspect’s father emerged to plead with local leaders that the Sh400,000 penalty was beyond their means.
New details show that the pair scaled the walls and jumped inside the church that fateful evening through an unfitted window of the yet-to-be-completed church structure.
The leadership of the church and the village decided that the suspects would, as punishment, pay for purchase and fitting of shutters on all windows of the unfinished house of God.
Mr Aaron Komugisha, the church’s lay leader, said each window shutter costs Shs75,000 and the married man and a father of two must foot the bills. There is no word on whether the woman will be penalised or not.
“Although the windows had no shutters and he (male suspect) accessed the church through the window, we have resolved as a church to fine him by paying for all the shutters because he broke into the church,” Ms Esther Nakamate, the assistant head of laity, said.
However, the father of the accused, whose names we are withholding for legal reasons, said the son can only afford to buy and fix one shutter.
Mr Joseph Kahinda, the Bugonya Village secretary for defence, said they have asked the father to produce his son.
“We have asked [him] to produce his son in the LC court so that we can hear his side of the story, but he says he doesn’t know his son’s whereabouts,” Mr Kahinda noted.
Mr George William Kanda, the Bugonya Village chairperson, said the suspect, in addition to buying the window shutters, will have to repair church furniture damaged in a melee during the arrest of the lovers.
“The exhibits of a head gear and a T-shirt [recovered from the suspects] are still with us and we are insisting on the couple appearing in our LC court,” he added.
Prayers resumed at the church on Sunday and, according to Ms Nakamate, only after cleansing rituals and fasting by Christians.
