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Ugandan singer Elijah Kitaka recently opened up about his personal struggles with the church, revealing how he ended up running away from his faith despite being a pastor’s son.
Kitaka, whose father founded Miracle Worship Center, a church that stemmed from Pastor Robert Kayanja’s Rubaga Miracle Center, revealed how his upbringing in the church eventually led to his departure due to the internal conflicts he witnessed.
In an episode view on the "Tusker Malt CoverSessions" episode, he revealed that his father, Grace Kitaka, started the ministry with Pastor Kayanja and that he grew up immersed in this religious environment.
“I grew up in that type of society, and I couldn’t easily detach myself from it. I was raised in the ministry. I was a drummer in church; that was my first gift,” he recalled.
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Despite his deep roots in the church, Kitaka soon realised that the faith community was far from the idealised sanctuary he once thought it to be.
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Disillusionment with Church Politics
As he grew older, he began noticing troubling dynamics within the church that caused him to question the practices and behaviours of those in leadership.
“The church has a lot of problems, and it put me in a position to question a lot that was going on,” he said.
He observed that the conflicts and issues he saw in the church weren't new but had been festering for years.
"What we are seeing in the current generation of the church actually started way back," Kitaka explained.
“Today, you see pastors engaging in comedy on the pulpit. They attack fellow pastors; they stand on the pulpit and insult. This started a long time ago.”
Kitaka’s disillusionment deepened when he witnessed pastors engaging in behaviours that were at odds with his childhood understanding of the church as a source of light.
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The Burden of Pastor’s Children
One of the most traumatic experiences Kitaka described was overhearing a conversation between his father and someone on the phone, which shook him deeply.
“What I heard scared me,” he admitted. “That is the reason you hear that pastors' children are often spoiled. It is because of what we go through and the things we see and hear.”
He pointed out the emotional toll this took on him, noting that many pastor’s children face difficulties because of the intense pressures and secrets they are exposed to, which often go unnoticed by the general churchgoer.
Kitaka’s journey of self-discovery, shaped by the challenges and revelations he experienced within the church, was a difficult one.
"This stays in your heart, and the only way to get rid of it is by discovering yourself," he explained. “It is hard, and that’s why many end up going astray.”
These experiences led to Kitaka’s eventual decision to distance himself from the church and focus on his own path, outside the shadow of the religious institution he once knew so intimately.