Controversial Bukoto Central Legislator Richard Ssebamala has asked fellow political opposition politicians to use the trader’s tax grievances against Uganda Revenue Authority (URA) to push President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni out of power.

He claims that in many countries that had political revolutions, traders were very fundamental because they are the ones who pays taxes that run the country.

He adds that he is very sure that if the political opportunity is carefully used, it can spark the overthrow of the Museveni government.

He explains that for a long time, Museveni have been controlling traders which has led to many dissociating themselves from the opposition. But now, they are the ones looking for them.

He notes that because Museveni is in a financial crisis, he cannot resolve the issue of taxes since he needs money to facilitate his stay in power.

That is why and traders also should be encouraged to continue placing on the button very sure that positive political results will be yielded.

He made the allegation as Museveni plans to meet traders again at Kololo independence grounds on 7^th May 2024 to make his final announcement of the issue of the Electronic Fiscal Receipting and Invoicing System (EFRIS) which traders are protesting.

Uganda Revenue Authority’s John Musinguzi Rujoki the Commissioner General insists that EFRIS is the only way that will help both government and traders reach a fair ground when it comes to tax collection.

Fred Bamwine the Commissioner in the president’s office declared that the current practice that URA is using to collect taxes is here to stay.

Meanwhile, as the traders are strategising and holding frequent meetings on the way forward after Museveni’s Kololo meeting, Brig. Gen. Christopher Ddamulira Sserunjogi the Director Crime Intelligence in police has saved him from another nasty strike.

Noordin Mukuye the chairperson of the Aggrieved Oppressed Voiceless Tax Drivers Kampala Uganda confirmed to theGrapevine that they have cancelled their planned strike which was take place on 29^th April 2024.

He explains that the cancellation of their meeting comes days after meeting Brig. Gen. Ddamulira convinced them that their grievances are going to be forwarded to the concerned government offices and they will be addressed within the shortest time.

Mukuye who is also the Masuulita tax park stage chairperson said that in their meeting with Brig. Gen. Ddamulira, they pleaded with him to help them talk to Works and Transport Senior Minister Gen. Edward Katumba Wamala, Kampala Capital City Authority (KCCA) Executive Director Dr. Dorothy Kisaka, Maj. Gen. Godfrey Katsigazi the Acting Inspector General of Police and URA’s Rujoki to address their complaints.

Among the issues they want government officials to address include; express ticket, high fuel prices, paying for Public Service Vehicle, Park User fee which they pay annually and other taxes which they pay both in URA and in KCCA.

Mukuye and his team also want the concerned government offices to organise the election of their new leaders which will help them solve their grievances after accusing the current leadership of their umbrella body the Federation of Uganda Taxi Operators (UTOF ) of using the offices to enrich themselves.

Mukuye accuses UTOF chairperson Rashid Ssekindi of leading a team criminals who mistreat and torture taxi drivers and conductors to force them to pay illegal money to them and when the they refuse, they confiscate their cars.

He added that each day, each car pays between Shs.4000- Shs.5000 in a public park in Kampala yet president Museveni banned such payment.

“We are working under a challenging situation and we need help from government. We are tortured in public like kids and our children and wives no longer respect us because they see us being tortured by Ssekindi’s men in public. Meanwhile, KCCA is looking on and we want the president to handle our issue as he did to traders,” Mukuye said.

theGrapevine has also established that bus drivers and operators at Namayuba bus park are also planning to strike over the high taxes URA and KCCA collect from them.

City businessman John Bosco Muwonge who is the owner of the park has also added another Shs50,000 on the amount of money they pay claiming that URA has also raised the tax he pays.

However, when contacted, Moses Birungi Mawejje the spokesperson of UTOF denied all the allegations placed on their federation and their chairperson Ssekindi.

He advised his colleagues that they are not going to resolve their issues through striking.

Deo Kiyemba of Uganda Manufacturers Association (UMA) has disclosed that the problem is not that Ugandans don’t want to pay taxes but the problem is with government which uses taxpayers money in luxurious spending and corruption practices.

He was supported by Makerere University senior Economist Dr. Fred Muhumuza who advised government to reduce luxurious expenditure because Ugandans are also struggling financially.

By Hadijjah Namagembe

President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni was forced to direct Special Forces Command (SFC) detectives to with immediate effect kickoff investigations and report to him their findings concerning allegations that a number of male tax collectors sent by Uganda Revenue Authority Commissioner General John Musinguzi Rujoki sexually harass women during the exercise.

Last week, Rujoki was accompanied by some of his staff who are enforcing the exercise of collecting tax from the city center to the State House to meet the president over the recent traders’ strike.

President Museveni summoned the meeting to listen to both the traders and URA over the enforcement of the Electronic Fiscal Receipting and Invoicing System (EFRIS) and tempers were very high from all sides.

Security in State House was on alert because of the sharp misunderstanding between traders, especially from those behind Dr. Thadeus Musoke Nagenda’s Kampala Capital Traders Association (KACITA) and David Kabanda’s Federation of Uganda Traders Association (FUTA).

Both Kabanda and Musoke were fighting to make sure that their people are accredited to attend the meeting. The total number who took Covid-19 test were more than 200 and they all traveled to Entebbe State House to meet the president.

By 10am, traders pitched camp at State House Entebbe gate prepared to give moral supporter to their respective leaders as they were arguing out their grievances against Rujoki’s URA before the President.

However, they were surprised when State House security informed them that it will be only their leaders who will be allowed to enter.

They tried to explain to the SFC Commandos how Kampala Senior Minister Hajjat Minsa Kabanda and her State Minister Joseph Christopher Kabuye Kyofatogabye assured them that they wereall going to meet Museveni and the only condition was to take Covid-19 test.

“Many of us tried to make phone calls to minister Kabuye but he was not picking and Kabanda told us that she was still engaged with the President in Kitebi and she was not in position to talk to us, after that, she hung up,” one of the traders told Grapevine.

Only 25 leaders were allowed to enter State House and others decided to camp in one of the compounds near State House waiting for the President. When he entered State House from Kitebi, he just waved at them.

The meeting started by 10pm and a number of ministers whoincluded: Francis Mwebesa the senior trade minister, his deputy David Bahati, Evelyn Anite the state minister for finance in charge of investment, Kampala Minister Minsa Kabanda and other government officials.

The traders were allowed first to submit their grievances against URA before the big man. However, KACITA suffered a setback when President Museveni wondered what they wanted from him because he had just met them a few days back and asked them to talk to the traders not to strike.

Before the President finished his statement, Kabanda and his team clapped their hands in surprise wondering why Musoke and his team met the President secretly without informing them. Kabanda has his team immediately started accusing Musoke’s team of betraying the traders.

The President then gave Musoke and Isa Ssekito the KACITA spokesperson the green light to continue with their submission.

Meanwhile, Kabanda’s people were panicking fearing that their man (Kabanda) might fail to submit properly their issues before the president because their issues were in writing (and he struggles with reading documents) and he was supposed to follow the document since the President also had a copy.

“Kabanda shocked all of us, we don’t where he got the confidence from because he was on spot and was even given a standing ovation,” a source who attended the meeting said.

However, before Rujoki was given the opportunity to respond to the complaints made against him and his team, a one Doreen Nakirya was given a chance to also raise her complaint and the entire meeting was shocked when she reported to the President that Rujoki’s men in the field sexually harass them.

One of the businessmen who attended the meeting told theGrapevine that Museveni was shocked, to the extent that when Nakirya talked about URA men sexually harassing female Traders, the President, who was writing every submission paused.

He asked her whether she knew the names of the men who sexually harassed them because the NRM government does not believe and associate with men who don’t respect women.

Nakirya told the president that Rujoki’s men touch and feel women trader’s bums, breasts and make sexual signs after waylaying them in their shops and sometimes their children and workers see them.

While the president wasasking Rujoki to respond to the allegations, Nakirya pointed out a one Godfrey (who was also in the meeting) and a colleague.

Immediately, the president directed SFC detectives to take both of them to record statements so that investigations can kick off.

The president was also told that URA men have a vice of asking for bribes from them so as not to close their shops after accusing them of delaying to pay their taxes to URA.

In his defense, Rujoki informed the President that URA on several occasions has always interacted with the business community and a number of trainings and workshops concerning EFRIS were carried out.

One of the businessmen confirmed to theGrapevine that it is true URA has always conducted meetings and trainings with traders.

The President was briefed that businessmen and women who are complaining have been hiding the correct record of sales they make every day.

He gave examples with evidence that traders have two books, one which is submitted to URA and another one in which they record the actual sales which they don’t submit to URA.

Fred Bamwine the Commissioner in the Office of the Presidency confirmed that nothing is going to change in the way URA collects taxes especially on EFRIS even if Museveni meets traders again in May at Kololo strip.

By Sengooba Alirabaki

There was a lot of panic at Buganda Kingdom clan heads council after their secretary and also the Ngabi clan head Omuttaka Ssalongo Aloysious Magandaazi went missing for two weeks.

One of the clan heads told theGrapevine that they are in fear that their colleague may kill himself because for two weeks they have failed to reach him.

“We have been looking for him via his known phone numbers to see how we can help him and his family because we know the humiliating situation he is going through and his family but all his lines are off,” a clan head said.

He pleaded with Buganda Kingdom administration led by Premier Charles Peter Mayiga to intervene and save the situation by buying a new home for the clan head because the one he was evicted on a court directive from the one he was staying in.

It should be remembered that two weeks back, Court bailiffs guarded by armed policemen from Natete police station commanded by Hassan Ssekalema threw Nsamba and all his properties including pigs out of his house at Mutundwe Kigagga zone Lubaga Division a Kampala city suburb.

His wife Jane Nanyondo and daughter tried to resist but they were defeated, arrested and taken to Natete police station.

They were later released with orders not to go back to their home and told to stop using the piece of land because it was taken over on a court directive.

Rosemary Nayiga who defeated Nsamba in Court told theGrapevine that the said land was owned by their father Edward Kasozi but in 1993, Nsamba fraudulently used force to grab it because he was a son to a former clan head.

The development to evict Nsamba from the house comes at a time when the Kingdom culture court (kkooti ya Kisekwa) is set to announce his fate on the matter of being the clan head of the Ngabi clan.

A section of Ngabi clan members dragged Nsamba to the cultural court claiming that he was illegally elected to head their clan.

Things are not moving well in Buganda Kingdom clan heads council because just recently, their treasurer omutaka Daniel Bbosa Lwomwa the head of Ndiga clan was shot dead in February 2024 and a number of suspects whoioncluded Milly Naluwenda the secretary to Kisekwa court, Derrick Noah Luggya a clan mate to Bbosa and others were charged with murder and remanded to Luzira prison.

Nsamba, the council secretary is also on run over arrest threats because court bailiffs want him to pay them Shs30m as eviction fees as directed by court.

One of the clan head said that Nsamba went into hiding fearing imprisonment because he doesn’t have money to pay the court bailiffs. He pleaded with Mayiga to intervene and save the man.

Other clan heads who are under pressure from Kisekwa court include:their council speaker Omuttaka Ssalongo Augustine Kizito Mutumba the head of Kkobe clan who was even stopped from accessing the clan headquarters in Mawokota Mpigi district.

A section of clan members refused to recognize him as their leader even though kkooti ya kisekwa declared him the legal clan head.

Kkobe clan members claim that Mutumba entered into a deal with Mayiga’s administration to give him a win so as to silence his good friend and also grandchild Kassim Male Mabirizi.

Mabirizi put Mayiga’s administration under pressure because of several court suits filed against Ronald Muwenda Mutebi, the Kabaka of Buganda challenging his leadership.

By Hadijjah Namagembe