President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni was overwhelmed and openly told angry traders to stop intimidating him but instead listen to him just like he also listened to them for more than two hours.

Museveni made the statement after some traders started shouting on top of their voices.

Some of them even started to move out of Kololo while he was still speaking.

However, they were stopped by Special Forces Command (SFC) Commandos from getting out of the Kololo Independence ground gates until the President finished speaking.

SFC Commandos told some of these angry traders that they had come to listen to the President and since he gave them time, they should also wait until he finishes. One by one they were forced to go back to their seats in the tent.

President Museveni’s 1981 war comrade and political competitor Dr. Kizza Besigye revealed that it is the first time in many years that he has seen Museveni being publicly embarrassed by civilians.

However, the mighty Grapevine has exclusively learnt that what happened at Kololo was not accidental but a planned move which was defused by SFC Commandos.

Highly placed sources within traders leadership revealed that on the fateful day of 7th May 2024, a section of traders leadership held a private meeting in the morning at the offices of the Kampala Acarders Traders Association (KATA) chaired by Godfrey Katongole.

Others in the attendance included; Moses Lwegaba on behalf of Katukazane shoe traders, John Kabanda who represented the Kampala New Generation Traders Association and also the Federation of Uganda Traders Association.

Sources divulged that the gist of the meeting was to strategise on how to counter the submissions of Dr. Thaddeus Musoke Nagenda the chairperson of Kampala City Traders Association (KACITA) and his Secretary Isa Ssekito.

They suspected that KACITA had plans of diverting the President from addressing the real issues by resorting to praising him.

They alleged that they established that on several occasions, KACITA has held private meetings with the president without the knowledge of the traders.

Before the meeting openly started, Kabanda was grilled and placed on the spot to declare his secret relationship with Kampala Capital City Authority (KCCA) senior minister Hajjat Minsa Kabanda after his colleagues openly told him that he also might be working with their enemies.

Kabanda denied the allegations.

The traders leadership became suspicious of Kabanda when he supported Minister Minsa in one of the precursor heated meeting at Hotel African where she was trying to convince all traders not to bring the issue of landlords who are mistreating them before the president because it was not discussed in the previous meeting held in State House in April 2024.

They told Kabanda that what he did to support the Minister was an act of betrayal because he also knows very well that landlords harass them just like the Electronic Fiscal Receipting and Invoicing Solution (EFRIS).

They started accusing him of being bribed by landlords.

Traders disclosed that it seems the landlords who Kabanda wanted to save are the ones who supported his lavish wedding last week. The meeting ended in fighting and Minister Minsa was saved by his security.

In the Tuesday meeting, Kabanda assured fellow traders leadership that he is with them and a decision was taken to inform their respective members on their different WhatsApp groups to storm out of the meeting immediately once they discover that Museveni is not going to ban the use of EFRIS.,

This is what they tried to do but the move was fused by SFC Commandos.

However, before Museveni addressed the traders, some of their leaders had successfully executed their mission of exposing Prime Minister Robinah Nabbanja Musafire and Junior Minster for investment Evelyn Anite who they declared a mafia who takes fake investors to President Museveni who give her incentives.

They accused the said investors of facilitating smuggling of goods into the country.

Minister Minsa, who feared that traders were going to embarrass her before her boss was forced off the microphone because they were shouting at her for not helping them.

Sources said that the ministers were embarrassed before their boss because some leaders of the traders have information that they are sealing deals with KACITA leadership which are costing the common trader.

Traders further sent a warning message to President Museveni, his ministers and Members of Parliament (MP) that if their issues are not solved they are ready to stand against them or support by financially facilitating their opponents in the coming elections.

Democratic Party’s Richard Ssebamala the Bukoto Central MP warned President Museveni to be very careful with traders issues because for a long time, they have not been involving themselves in political issues especially during elections but only concentrated on their businesses.

But now that they have issues, if these concerns are not properly resolved, it may be a spark for his downfall.

Some Ministers were shocked when angry traders praised fired trade minister Harriet Ntambazi telling Museveni that mafias in the Ministry of Finance and those in the Trade Ministry fought her and misled the President even though she always acted swiftly in resolving their problems.

theGrapevine established that Ntambazi always supported Kabanda’s leadership and she was a ground minister who attended traders meetings in Kikuubo and other places and one time she nearly survived being tear gassed by police in Kikuubo who accussed he of attending an illegal meeting.

However, former trade minister Amelia Kyambadde claims that people who make such statements before the president are always paid by the side which is fighting a certain government official who is embarrassed before the president.

Nabbanja denied the allegations that she is not responding to Kabanda’s letters and explained to the President that she has never seen any letter from Kabanda.

She wondered why Kabanda didn’t come to her country home in Kakumiro district since he is a son from the neighbouring Mubende district.

Sources disclosed that Kampala city junior minister Christopher Kabuye Kyofatogabye predicted that he was going to be embarrassed before the president because the traders accussed him of being very arrogant and using the divide and rule method to frustrate their fight against high taxation.

He decided not to attend the meeting but his car was cited at the premises of Kololo Independent ground.

Even though the traders were served drinks and food, with some claiming that over 20 cows were slaughtered for them, some have decided that they will not attend the next meeting  with the President come 20th of June 2026.

Sources added that a section of traders’ leadership are buying the proposal that the 20^th June meeting should only be attended by their leaders. But Kabanda insists that all traders should attend.

Other traders want to get an expert in tax laws to lead them during their negotiations with URA insisting that URA officials are exploiting their ignorance on tax issues to double tax them.

Sources among the traders disclosed that they have started engaging Kabanda not to politicize their fight against high taxation by threatening that if EFRIS is not banned, they will carry out a three months strike by closing their shops.

However, Dr. Besigye predicted that Museveni is going to use guerrilla war tactics to divide traders and very soon they are going to start fighting each other.

Joseph Tamale Mirundi the senior presidential advisor on media told theGrapevine that Museveni will not ban EFRIS because banning it will attract other people including policemen and women, teachers, doctors to strike because they will have established that he fears strike.

He added that traders lack serious knowledgeable leaders who can compromise Museveni to side with them.

He insisted that Museveni clearly know that people like Ssekito are dealers who are always used by his opponents and government mafias to pressurize him on traders’ issues, which is why he does not respect them.

He questioned the expertise of URA and Ministry of Finance when it comes to traders and tax issues because instead of widening the tax base they are harassing the poor traders.

He however challenged Museveni on the issue of stopping traders from importing goods from abroad revealing that much of the products which they would have exported with additional value are monopolised by members of his family so the traders don’t want to enter open competition.

By Sengooba Alirabaki

Maverick Kampala Capital City Authority (KCCA) Junior Minister Joseph Christopher Kabuye Kyofatogabye has narrated how he survived being humiliated by angry traders at State House before his boss President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni last week.

Minister Kabuye was part of the team that organised the meeting between President Museveni and traders to solve their tax grievances with Uganda Revenue Authority  (URA) after they closed their shops for a week.

The angry traders were protesting against the high tax levies slapped on them and the use of the Electronic Fiscal Receipting and Invoicing System (EFRIS) as a mechanism to collect taxes.

Minister Kabuye revealed that he chickened out of the meeting at the last moment because his intelligence briefed him at the last hour before the meeting that there was a group of traders who had strategised to humiliate him before the President like they tried to do to URA Commissioner General John Musinguzi Rujoki.

theGrapevine recently reported how a female trader, a one Doreen Nakirya shocked the meeting when she told the President that Rujoki’s men sexually harass female traders when collecting taxes and the president directed his Special Forces Command (SFC) detectives to record statements from both from Nakirya and the male taxman who she accused of sexual harassment. They were later released.

Kabuye said that a section of traders were not happy when he told them not to first consult National Unity Platform (NUP) boss Robert Kyagulanyi Ssentamu (Bobi Wine) on what to tell Museveni yet others were planning to ‘Kulabisa’ Museveni as Bobi Wine encouraged them to do by exposing and humiliating leaders.

“Those people who were stopped at the State House gate were not traders but they were taken to State House to humiliate me. Never joke with the government, it has intelligence,” Kabuye boasted.

Sources within the traders associations confirmed the allegation adding that they wanted to tell the president that Kabuye was using government’s money to bribe a section of traders to withdraw from the strike so that he is praised as an influential minister in the city.

The sources added that when Kabuye invited the traders at Africana Hotel to discuss their issues before meeting the president, he came with people who they didn’t know in the trader’s circle and his plan was to declare before the media that they are ready to open the shops.

“We identified them before the meeting and we started grilling them to tell us where they operate business from and their shop numbers. When they failed, we forced them out of the meeting and we frustrated Kabuye’s meeting,” one of the leaders in the trader association said.

He divulged that they wanted to tell the President that Kabuye is very arrogant and doesn’t listen to them and like former KCCA Executive Director Jenniffer Musisi, he runs the city on orders.

He added that they know that political leaders are mobilizing non traders to be taken to President Museveni’s meeting on 7^th May 2024 at Kololo Independent grounds to tell lies to the big man.

On that date, Museveni is expected to make a final announcement on the issue of EFRIS.

By Hadijjah Namagembe

The Commercial Division of the High Court Judge Patricia Kahigi Asiimwe has directed Brookside Company Limited’s Vincent Omoth the company’s marketing manager and Atii and Kati company limited to compensate Gloria Akech with Shs50m plus 15% interest annually from the date of the judgment for violation of her copyright work.

The judge further with immediate effect stopped the defendants from using the plaintiff’s work for marketing their products without her consent.

According to Court records, Akech through her lawyers of Citadel Advocates told Court that in December 2021, she approached Brookside Company with an idea to run a campaign aimed at marketing their products like fresh dairy milk.

In her proposal, Akech’s idea involved assuring the public that when you take a Brookside product, it extends your life.

Through her affidavit, she explained to Court that her marketing concept was that Brookside would sell its milk products by gathering women in Uganda to discuss different topics and during the discussions, the women would be enjoying taking milk as a means of publicizing the milk brand.

Her marketing concept was submitted in form of demonstration videos and a document that contained a proposal.

She gave them to Omoth and explained to him her vision of the campaign and that the goal of the campaign was detailed in the plan.He proposed a monthly budget of Shs7,500,000.

Akech stated that Omoth assigned her to work with Atii and Kati Company which is an events and marketing company and Monica Kulabako Ineza was assigned to coordinate the campaign.

Omoth further instructed Akech and Kulabako to coordinate and look for the venues, snack suppliers, and women to whom the brand will be marketed.

Akech stated that, Omoth asked for a budget which she submitted in an email dated June 2022 but she was surprised when he started becoming elusive and later discovered that he conspired with Kulabako’s company to bring on board another person in the names of Bahati Hilda Sabiti to run her fresh dairy campaign using her work.

She insisted that she never consented to Bahati using her demonstration videos and proposals claiming that she together with other defendants illegally used her work.

However, the defendants through their lawyers of M/S Ntwali & Co. Advocates pleaded with court to dismiss Akech’s claim adding that her budget did not align with their marketing strategy which they used to target their audience and she was informed.

In his affidavit, Omoth insisted that him and his company never signed any agreement with Akech and they even denied ever naming her as their brand ambassador given that in their company, there are clear processes followed for approval of a supplier which commences with the issuance of a Local Purchase Order which they never issued to her.

He challenged Akech to provide court with evidence showing that she was contracted by their company as a brand ambassador.

Omoth stated that Akech adopted the material aspects for her proposal from him therefore, she cannot claim novelty and originality regarding the proposal and demonstration videos presented to court as evidence.

After examining the evidence before her, the presiding judge discovered that the demonstrated video and documented proposal passed the originality test for copyright protection.

He thus declared that the work under contestation originated from Akech.

One of the witnesses testified that prior to receiving Akech’s work, Omoth had not previously received any similar proposal which means that her works were the first proposal that he received.

The witnesses further told Court that Omoth received Akech’s proposal and that of Bahati which means that it is possible that the proposal submitted to Atii and Kati Limited could have gotten into the hands of Bahati. He added that it is also possible that Omoth passed Akech’s proposal to Bahati given that there is substantial similarity in the two proposals.

The judge found out that Bahati had access to Akech’s works which resulted into infringement of her copyright.

The judge explained that Akech proved to court that she generated her content with the aim of benefiting from it and it is the reason why she took it to Brookside so that they pay her, but instead they decided to violate her copyright and handed it over to Bahati.

Bahati is a known television personality who previously worked with Dr. Kin Kariisa’s Next media.

By Sengooba Alirabaki