POLICE SHUTS DOWN FOUR MEDIA HOUSES

In summary

Daily Monitor, Red Pepper, Dembe FM and KFM have been shut down by police until the letter authored by Gen Sejusa is found.

Police car parked at the main entrance of the Daily Monitor publication premises

By The Makererean reporter

The Uganda Police have closed down the Daily Monitor and its two sister radio stations, KFM and Dembe FM, declaring the newspaper’s premises a “scene of crime”.

The newspaper’s offices, for the second time since 2002, were yesterday surrounded by gun-wielding policemen with an order to search the place for, as they claimed, Gen David Sejusa’s letter.

At 11.15am, three packed police patrol vehicles arrived at the premises. Two vans were parked at the end of the Monitor Building and one just near the main entrance.

The officers jumped out of the vans and started chasing away civilians who were standing outside the Daily Monitor premises, including boda boda motorcycle operators who, on a daily basis, park at the entrance as they wait for journalists going out for assignments.

The men in uniform have a warrant to even search the production plant for Gen Sejusa’s letter.

In a press statement, police spokesperson Judith Nabakooba said they learnt that there were people who have started scanning signatures of senior government officials “with the intention of using the said signatures on documents, claiming they are official documents from the government whereas they are not”.

The police officers on the scene, led by deputy CID director Godfrey Musana, told the Monitor Publications management that the premises had been declared a “scene of crime”, and no operations could continue.

Security sources said the government is cracking the whip over media reports on the frenzy surrounding the prospects of President Museveni’s son, Muhoozi Kainerugaba, for the presidency, dubbed by the coordinator of Intelligence Services, Gen Sejusa as the “Muhoozi Project”.

Monitor Publications managing director Alex Asiimwe described the situation as “very surprising and unfortunate”.

A statement released by the management reads: “The management of Monitor Publications Ltd strongly condemns the closure by Uganda Police today (yesterday) of its newspaper, the Monitor, and its radio stations, KFM and Dembe FM ... They claimed to be looking for a document associated with a story that has been widely covered by all media quoting a letter from General David Tinyefuza to the head of the internal intelligence services on an alleged assassination plot.

“Instead of carrying out the search, the armed men disabled the printing press, computer servers and radio transmission equipment.” Management told The Makererean.

Although the Police maintained that they were searching for Sejusa’s documents, the Monitor management reported that the Police also disabled the printing press, computer servers and radio transmission equipment.

“It is particularly perturbing that the Police ordered our operations shut down under the pretext of carrying out a search. It is unacceptable that our business should be crippled on a dispute, which should be settled in court,” Monitor management, which is part of the Nations Media Group, said. 

While speaking to The Makererean, Tom Mshindi, the managing director of Nation's newspapers division, said the raid was extremely shocking. 

“We are surprised and shocked. We had expected that the Government would allow the law to takes its course,” Mshindi, who had just flown into the country from their head office in Nairobi, said. 

He added that the action was very surprising in a country where core discussions on freedom of expression are lively.

“We could have hoped for a prior communication before this happened but we didn’t get it,” said Mr Mshindi.

Mr Mshindi was part of a team that came from Nairobi to attend an impromptu board meeting.

Addressing the staff, Mr Mshindi said: “This is a reminder of the hazards that good journalism brings. But just to assure you, we are fully in this and we will handle the situation. A situation like this requires that we engage proactively.”

Sejusa, a serving officer in the UPDF, is alleged to have authored documents alleging a plot to assassinate senior leaders, purportedly opposed to what was referred to as “Muhoozi project”. 

The army leadership and the defence minister, Dr. Crispus Kiyonga, have roundly dismissed Sejusa’s statements as absolute falsehoods. Sejusa is currently out of the country. 

Meanwhile, a similar scenario unfolded at the Red Pepper premises in Namanve, on Jinja-Kampala highway, where the Police also cordoned off the place and combed the offices for the documents allegedly authored by Gen. Sejusa.

According to the Red Pepper management, the Police sealed off their offices at around mid-day with a search order from Nakawa Chief Magistrates’ Court.
Staff members were allowed to go out of the premises to have lunch, but were barred from returning to the offices.