2020 off to a frenetic start: UOT taking the fight against rape public, Chaka Chaka

This Week in Ugandan News 

January 01- January 03, 2019 

 

CHAKA CHAKA DEPORTED, SAYS WAS NOT DEPORTED  

We have barely had a moment to catch our breath in the New Year that is 2020 and the political landscape keeps shifting underneath our feet. 

South African musician Yvonne Chaka Chaka was supposed to be the headline artiste at Enkuuka Celebrations. One of the longest running annual music fetes, Enkuuka begins on December 31 and ushers in the New Year. This year’s celebration was going to be held at Lubiri grounds. 

Hours to the show on Tuesday, news that at first seemed like a wild rumor filtered out that Chaka Chaka had been deported. Police Spokesperson Fred Enanga confirmed it, explaining that the musician had failed to apply for a working visa. She only had a tourist visa that did not entitle her to perform at a music show. 

https://nilepost.co.ug/2019/12/31/chaka-chaka-was-deported-for-not-seeking-permission-to-perform-in-uganda-police/

Although Kyadondo East Member of Parliament Robert Kyagulanyi seemed nowhere near the confusion, his name was soon dragged into the heated debate. Several social media conspiracy theorists claimed that Chaka had been flown out of the country because she had described Kyagulanyi as, “the Nelson Mandela of Uganda.” 

 

https://nilepost.co.ug/2020/01/01/i-was-not-deported-says-chaka-chaka-video/

For her part, Chaka Chaka vehemently denied that she had been deported. She claimed that she had changed her mind about performing at Enkuuka because there were “so many things I could not understand.” And those so many things were not satisfactorily explained to her. 

Her calming words quietened what could potentially escalated into a diplomatic spat and reawakened the animosity South Africans sometimes express in xenophobic attacks against "foreigners" circa 2019.

The incident trended for almost two days on Twitter. 

While all eyes were glued on the Chaka Chaka saga, an equally revered African musician Kanda Bongo Man quietly entered the country. He paid a visit to the head of state before his New Year show at Sheraton Hotel gardens that was not just well attended but a euphoric celebration of that Congolese’s decades long  musical influence. 

 

UTL GETS A NEW ADMINISTRATOR 

2019 saw some of the bitterest public fights by government officials stemming from who has authority over Uganda Telecom Limited. 

Investment Minister Evelyn Anite seemed to stake her authority by butting heads with whoever was opposed to her decision to have court appointed Nelson Bemanya Twebaze replaced. In letters to the president and finance ministry, she said she had lost faith in his ability to oversee the revival of the partially government owned telecom. 

On Thursday, January 02, a new administrator was finally named for UTL by the high court. Did you see her coming? Former Uganda Law Society president Ruth Ssebatindira was given the mandate that the expiry of Bemanya’s contract in November 2019 opened up. 

https://nilepost.co.ug/2020/01/02/court-appoints-former-uganda-law-society-president-as-utl-administrator/

Bemanya had seemed inclined to keep at the task, supported by among others the country’s Attorney General William Byaruhanga and then Constitutional Affairs Minister General Kahinda Otafiire. President Museveni transferred Otafiire in the December 15, 2019 cabinet reshuffle to  minister for East African Affairs. 

If Ssebatindira’s tenure at ULS is anything to judge by, UTL is likely to be more in the news than ever before. Ssebatindira was never afraid to speak up for ULS. 

 

PETER OTAI IS DEAD. PETER WHO? 

True to the William Shakespeare line, “All the world’s a stage,

And all the men and women merely players;/ They have their exits and their entrances,” another giant bowed out on Thursday, January 02. Albeit quietly and in exile, feeding on that bitter bread. 

This giant in Uganda’s history is Peter Otai. You might ask, if you were born after 1986, “Peter who?” 

https://nilepost.co.ug/2020/01/02/former-uganda-peoples-army-upa-rebel-leader-peter-otai-is-dead/

Peter Otai was once the leader of the group that called itself the Uganda People’s Army and he was vying to “liberate” the country and become its head in the turbulent 1980s. 

Otai, who was once a minister in the Milton Obote II government in the 1980s, established a rebel group in eastern Uganda in 1987 and operated up to 1992. He was the Minister of state for Defence from 1981 until the military coup that over threw Obote in 1985.

The rebellion was later ended through mediation between the National Resistance Movement government and the group under the Teso Commission. Was he a hero or a villain? That depends on who you ask. Without a doubt, the resistance he led had a devastating impact on Teso region for decades and Uganda as a whole. 

Shortly after, Otai went to exile in the United Kingdom where he remained until his death on Thursday. Sources within the family say he had actually been in coma for two weeks prior to his passing. 

Otai was born in Oderai Soroti  sub county Soroti district. 

 

UGANDANS ON TWITTER DISCUSS RAPE 

Ugandans on Twitter may not be above 500,000 people but they are a very vocal group and this January, a things to leave in 2019 hashtag morphed into a movement no one had anticipated: an expose of rape. 

https://twitter.com/sheena_sheenzy/status/1212734788156690433?s=21

A number of women came forward to name and shame men they accused of raping them. Bravely leading the charge to ensure these accusations got the widest possible airing were the tweeps like @sheena_sheenzy, @Umwamikazi11, @Her_Lordship1, @owishemwe and @tomddumba. 

New Vision Group boss Robert Kabushenga (@rkabushenga) took note of the accusations against one of the staff Denzel Mwiyeretsi. He tweeted that the XFM radio and Urban TV presenter would face the company’s disciplinary committee to answer to the accusations of rape brought against him. 

A day later, youth MP Anna Ebaju Adeke announced that the the Uganda Parliamentary Forum on Youth Affairs was taking an interest in the rape accusations and experiences shared. The national female youth MP Adeke shared contact details for further action. 

The year has just begun but at a breakneck speed. Buckle up.