President Yoweri Museveni has reportedly pardoned the eight Red Pepper journalists and directors who are currently facing charges of offensive communication, defamation and ‘disturbing the peace’ of the President.

In a statement by the Red Pepper team, they said that in a meeting held at State House last night, Museveni also promised to immediately order the police to vacate their Headquarters in Namanve.

According to the team, the ‘presidential pardon’ followed both formal and informal negotiations with government, and that in the meeting Museveni warned them against being reckless, encouraging them to instead stick to professional ethics.

Dubbed the ‘Red Pepper Eight’, the Directors and Editors include Arinaitwe Rugyendo, Richard Kintu, James Mujuni, Patrick Mugumya, Richard Tusiime, Johnson Musingunzi, Ben Byarabaha and Francis Tumusiime, who said the President told them that their publication was about to bring problems to Uganda.

The eight were arrested in November over the publication of a story which indicated that President Yoweri Museveni wanted to cause the overthrow of the Rwandan government led by President Paul Kagame and since then their offices were condoned off by police.

In December last year, the eight were granted bail by Magistrate Samuel Kagoda, and were set to return to court on February 14.

Meanwhile, given the doctrine of ‘separation of powers’, by press time it was not possible to ascertain the fate of the court case against the ‘Red Pepper Eight’ since the issue is now seems to be ‘balancing’ between the Executive and Judiciary.

This is the second time such an conundrum is surfacing in Ugandan media, after the 2013 case against the Daily Monitor, after it published contents of a controversial letter written by General David Sejusa, which led to the 14-day closure of the Daily Monitor and subsequent trial of its journalists.

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The headteacher of Kibuli Senior Secondary School Hajji Ali Mugagga, who has been variously accused of sexually molesting girls at the school by a one Leonard Ronald Egesa, has ‘gone on leave’.

In a ‘handover’ letter to his deputy in charge of welfare Hajjat Mastula Nambajjwe, Hajji Mugagga says he is proceeding on a 36-day leave effective today.

However, communication from the school suggests Hajji Mugagga may not return.

‘Effective 24th January 2018, Hajjat Mastulah Nambajjwe (Deputy Headmistress – Welfare) will be the Acting Head Teacher.

This will be pending the Board of Governor meeting following the handover by the former headmaster Hajj Mugagga Ali hand over.

All activities remain normal and the school will resume as per the start of term. We regret all the inconvenience that will be caused by this development,’ the communication indicates.

It is not clear whether Mr. Egesa is a parent at the school, but it should be noted that over the past few days he has been posting a series of warning on Facebook, urging parents to withdraw their daughters from the school and then have them tested for HIV/Aids.

Indeed, in an FB post yesterday, Egesa threatened to spill more nasty beans and also to expose the Ministry of Education officials behind the continued stay of Hajji Mugagga, if the latter did not relinquish office today.

Below Eagle Online reproduces Mr. Leornard Ronald Egesa’s letter dubbed ‘MY STATEMENT ON THE LATEST DEVELOPMENTS AT KIBULI S.S’

Like I mentioned earlier on, I completed my investigations in November 2017 and decided to watch the conduct of the school’s Board of Governors and other stakeholders. After realising that the matter was swept under the carpet, I made efforts to reach the Head teacher himself to ask him to do what he has done today, but he did not take my calls. I sent him a text message and clearly presented this option. He still never replied.

I called the Vice Chair of the Board of Governors and wanted to relay the same message, but she was attending a function and promised to call me back, but she did not. I am still waiting for her call.

I made calls to top honchos in the Ministry of Education and Sports and informed them about what I was going to do, but they showed that there was nothing they would do at the time. I had already weighed the various options and got a win-win solution for all stakeholders; putting into consideration that part of my evidence that is in the custody of trusted Police Officers is graphic in nature and could cause serious damage to the family and former students of the Head teacher, I had to be very careful with how I handle this matter.

I decided to issue a precautionary notice that some people with a poor grasp of the Queen’s language misinterpreted to be a disclosure of the man’s health status whereas not. The wording in that public notice was carefully selected so as not to be alarmist. It was worded in a way that was to bring the matter to our attention.

On Sunday, the Ministry reached out to me asking me to write to them a letter with the same complaints, I reminded them that we have unfinished business, but am not a vindictive person. I offered them free advice. My advice was simple; Talk to the man and ask him to take leave and constitute an inquiry. I offered further advice on the nature and form of the inquiry in the open letter I wrote to the First Lady – I hope it is considered (if not, we shall innovate from within the action taken). I gave the Ministry this option because it was inexpensive and I know that Hajj knows in his heart of hearts that we are trying to give him a dignified exit.

I have exercised a great deal of restraint and maturity in handling this matter because I know that even with this weakness, Hajj Mugagga has been a performer at Gombe SS and Lubiri SS before and secondly, he has mature children that would be greatly hurt by presentation of graphic and audio evidence. I have suffered a bunch of simpletons ranging from teenagers to mature ladies and men on my timeline and inbox, but I have tried to respond to most of them with grace and at times making fun of their thoughtless comments. There is no amount of insult that will make me deviate from the earlier plan of giving him a smooth exit while protecting the victims and sending a clear message to other paedophiles on the loose.

I am privy to the lengthy discussions that have taken place at the Ministry and at the school’s Board of Governors’ meetings, but I must politely advise both parties to take note of the following:

1. The safest option is for Hajj. Mugagga to go for ‘early’ retirement in public interest. We can not surely continue punching a man that is already down. He can quietly move on with life. This is purely on humanitarian grounds.

2. Any attempts to put the messenger or his evidence on trial with the aim of working to reinstate the man will open a can of worms that you may fail to control. I am just a face of a revolution whose real fighters are quiet and carefully watching. Mind you, he has financial mismanagement problems that are worse than those we discovered in Old Kampala.

3. If you go ahead with the inquiry, do it with the victims at the centre and not with the aim of defeating justice.

4. This matter is already with the Police and I will not engage any other hungry police officers seeking to benefit from blackmail of the man in the spotlight. Some unethical Police officers have already seen an opportunity to milk the man. Please note that this is a sophisticated matter being handled by a team of sophisticated men and women.

5. Whatever you do, please know that Hajj. Mugagga knows the truth. All he needs is HONEST advice to save the remaining image and move on. Any advice to the contrary will lead him into a thankless fight that he cannot win.

I remain the leader of a revolution that is aimed at returning sanity to our public institutions. We will go slowly, but we shall get there.

In the words of Senior Counsel Mohammed Mbabazi; Lies can complete a sprint, but not a marathon.

Aluta Continua.

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The National Information Technology Authority Uganda (NITA-U) Tuesday visited the Special Forces Command (SFC) in Entebbe to sensitize officers there on the Authority’s ongoing work to make access to Government services easier through online communication.

SFC is a specialized component of the Uganda People’s Defense Forces (UPDF) tasked with carrying out specialized missions or operations at short notice and therefore, digitization is a key component to enhance their work, officials say.

For five years now, NITA-U has been collaborating with SFC to enable the implementation of the Special Forces Command Information Security Programme.

Speaking during the presentation, NITA-U’s Executive Director James Saaka applauded the Special Forces Command for their continued effort to operate a powerful and versatile special operations force that is responsive to the requirements of Uganda. He further highlighted NITA-U’s plans to integrate all Government systems.

“We are going to undertake an initiative to integrate all government systems. This Integration will ensure simplicity, efficiency of access to Government services in a secure environment,” Saaka said.

He said that by using a single User ID (National Identification Number), citizens will have easy access to Government services. “Additionally, this will promote transparency for Government as data sharing across agencies will be seamless and digitized,” he added.

The Special Forces team led by Col. Gerald Ahimbisibwe, Director Personnel and Administration, was also briefed on the various eGovernment services available at www.ecitizen.go.ug.

Col. Ahimbisibwe appreciated the role NITA-U has played to promote ICT in Uganda.

NITA-U officials committed to continue offering specialized technical support to the SFC. NITA-U also handed over laptops and other solutions to SFC which will be used to enhance the operational capacity of the SFC. This is in addition to the already existing ICT training programs that’ NITA-U extends to SFC

The NITA-U team shared the eGovernment services roadmap that included the following services that will be soon be launched, namely:

• Electronic Government Procurement: This is a web-based system that covers the full procurement lifecycle, all procurement modalities, and keeps a record and audit trail of all procurement activities. This will ease & automate the government procurement process
• Government ePayment Gateway: This a Government e-Payment gateway that will facilitate electronic payments for Government services in a bid to make service delivery more efficient and responsive to the needs of the citizens and as well promote online business.
• Unified Messaging and Collaboration System: This system will provide Email, Voice, Video, Social and Instant Messaging services to government offices. This will promote collaboration among Government Departments and Local Governments.
• Government SMS Gateway: The Government SMS Gateway will allow government entities to push SMS notifications to citizens through its various e-services and applications. This will allow for a rich online experience.
• Electronic Voucher (eVoucher): To be implemented in 42 Districts reaching 450,000 farmers over a period of 3 years. The eVoucher provides a mechanism for tracing the delivery of subsidized farm inputs, improved agricultural infrastructure, post-harvest handling technologies and competitive price for inputs and outputs.

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