Uganda’s Deputy Ambassador to Khartoum, Sudan, Mr. Dickson Ogwang Okul, and his wife, also a director at the Ugandan Parliament, Ranny Ismail, have petitioned the Uganda Communications Commission (UCC) over what they call a sustained smear campaign by a media outlet.
On October 26, 2025, via their website, www.redpepper.co.ug, the Red Pepper published a story titled, ‘On the rocks! Amb. Ogwang, parliament babe Ranny Ismail’s marriage hit stormy waters,’ complete with a photo of the couple’s happy wedding day. The same article would later circulate on social media and the news aggregator platform Opera News, as well as other online publications that republished it.
In a strongly-worded letter written by their lawyers of Anguria & Co. Advocates, on October 28, 2025, the couple contends that the article’s contents are not only false, malicious, inflammatory, and derogatory but also, “an assault on our clients’ right to privacy and the right to enjoy their marriage and family time peacefully.”
The lawyers further argued that, “The agony and anguish that the Red Pepper continues to visit on our clients, is immeasurable and whereas they have the legal right and the option of pursuing defamation and other lawful remedies in the courts of law, which they are pursuing, it is our considered view that it is prudent to engage UCC as a time-tested and ready, willing and able regulator of the online communication eco-system in Uganda, to call the culprits to order and follow the legal procedures as provided for in the Uganda Communications Act, to ensure that the ends of justice are met and that Red Pepper is reprimanded for this criminal-minded conduct and outright impunity.”
Red Pepper, one of Uganda’s enduring legacy media platforms, has a track record of a no-holds-barred approach to news reporting, sometimes peppered with a tinge of exaggeration, sexual innuendo, and sensationalist invasive reporting, attributes that made it stand out in Uganda’s newsstands for over two decades, stirring both hatred and admiration in many readers.
The publication has, over the years, been slapped with several defamation cases by high-profile figures, including Capt. Mike Mukula, former Speaker of Parliament, Rebecca Kadaga, former NRM Secretary General, Justine Kasule Lumumba, Internal Affairs Minister Kahinda Otafiire, among several other who-is-who in Uganda’s business and political spectrum.
In the latest battle with Ogwang, a former deputy Ambassador of Uganda to the United States, a posting he exited after claims of domestic violence were made against him by his former wife, Miriam Otengo, the UCC has been petitioned to crack the whip on the publication whose fortunes have since declined considerably in the last five years, following run-ins with the government which at one point shut down the newspaper’s operations in Namanve, Mukono district after a controversial story on Uganda-Rwanda relations.
In a separate legal notice seen by this publication, Ranny Ismail and Dickon Ogwang have demanded, through their lawyers, that Red Pepper cease-and-desist publication of false, malicious and defamatory content about them or face legal proceedings. They also demanded that Red Pepper issues a public apology and pulls down its stories against them from their online platforms.
The letter to the Managing Director of Red Pepper states, “Our clients, being senior Government of Uganda officials and leaders in their own right, are too busy serving the state and public to be distracted by petty, malicious and evil schemes of this publication and yet the consistency and persistence with which Red Pepper executes its atrocious smear campaign cannot give the couple a peace of mind and leaves their wider family anxious.”
It adds that, “As you will appreciate, our clients are blessed with children who are now fairly grown and are exposed to online content as are, indeed, their friends and peers. Our clients are also businesspeople with several stakeholders in their lives, including employees and business partners. As public servants, they work closely with professional colleagues in their respective professional lines of work. The impact of your newspaper’s online articles, which are circulated widely, to these family, work, business and office relationships, is simply immeasurable. Our clients implore you to cease-and-desist from this smear campaign, firstly, out of humanity considerations.”
Red Pepper is yet to respond to the letter and it remains to be seen what UCC will do following the high-power couple’s petition.
In a press statement issued by the Office of Public Affairs and Communications of Rado Conciliation and Consultancy LLP, on October 27, 2025, titled, ‘a Unified Front,’ the celebrity high-profile couple said, ‘this orchestrated smear campaign, thinly veiled as “news”, represents a calculated attempt to malign two upright Ugandan citizens whose lives are defined by service, integrity, and patriotism. The couple remains steadfast in their commitment to family, faith, and the Republic of Uganda under the leadership of H.E President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni and the NRM Administration.”
