Former State House Spokesperson Joseph Tamale Mirundi broke down in tears while narrating how President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni saved him from the First Lady Janet Kataha Museveni over fabricated recorded tapes.

Mirundi, the Senior presidential advisor on media revealed that in 2015, when he developed a misunderstanding with State House staff who included; Lt. Col. Edith Nakalema, Lt. Gen. Proscovia Nalweyiso and some members of the first family, he decided to stop reporting to Okello House where his office was.

Mirundi narrated that while at his home, he received a phone call from State House informing him that the President wanted to see him immediately.

While he was still preparing himself, military vehicles sealed off his gate under the command of Maj. Gen. Stephen Sabiiti Muzeeyi, the former Deputy Inspector General of Police who told him that the President directed him to take him to State House.

Sabiiti gave Mirundi time to take a bath and dress up in his good suits and after drove him straight to Entebbe State House.

He was ordered to enter the room where he found veteran journalist Andrew Mwenda, Lt. Col. Nakalema, Lt. Gen. Nalweyiso and other people.

Hours passed without each talking to the other until the president entered the room.

“Mirundi, are you in your normal understanding, I am told you have run mad, and you are always drunk,” Mirundi quoted a furious Museveni.

While he was still denying the allegations, Mwenda started pinning him.

Mwenda told the meeting that Mirundi is an abusive person and is placing State House and the President in bad light.

Mwenda asked the president to grant them permission to play recorded tapes when Mirundi is abusing him, his wife, first family members and other government officials.

While listening to the recorded tapes, Mirundi narrated that Museveni closed his eyes while listening to Mirundi’s voice abusing him, his wife with strong words including using words like ‘stupid’.

“When I looked at Museveni and saw him closing his eyes, I saw his face change. I realised that I’m going to be killed or imprisoned for all my entire life,” Mirundi stated.

He added that when the tapes were done, Museveni asked Mirundi whether the voices on the tape are his, which he accepted but pleaded to the President explaining that the voices on the tapes were fabricated.

The president again ordered the tapes to be played again and at the end asked Mwenda why the voices of the moderator of the talk shows which Mirundi used to abuse him and wife were not on the tape.

“The President told me that he used to listen to my programs and moderators guided me. That is why he was asking, why I was alone in the tapes this time.”

As Mirundi was defending himself, Lt. Gen. Nalweyiso raised his hand and told the president that Mirundi not only abused him but he also abuses religious leaders and cultural leaders like Ronald Muwenda Mutebi the Kabaka of Buganda.

“I was humiliated to the bone marrow. Museveni told me that; ‘Mirundi you are gone, and squirrels have eaten you, even though you thought that you are a huge snake’,” Mirundi narrated.

Mirundi recounted that Museveni asked him who he is in State House. Before he answered, he asked him whether he knows how to write and Mirundi responded to him that he knows that’s why he appointed him his press secretary.

He then told him that he has been fired from his job as senior press secretary but he gave him the opportunity to recommend the person to replace him. That is how he recommended his deputy Linda Nabusaayi.

Museveni then ordered Mwenda and his group to move out of the room. Museveni then told Mirundi that the First Lady was very bitter with him.

He immediately got a plain paper and asked him to draw close. He then asked him to write an apology letter to the First Lady in his hand writing.

“We drafted the apology letter together while he was guiding me on which words to use,” Mirundi said.

Mirundi added that after agreeing on the final letter, Museveni told him to wait for him so that he takes the apology letter to the First Lady.

Mirundi related that Museveni spent an hour before coming back with the good news that the First Lady had forgiven him.

However, the President told him that he had to plead with the First Lady to accept his apology and the condition was that he had to take it for publication in the next day’s New Vision which Mirundi accepted.

Unfortunately, Robert Kabushenga, the then Chief Executive Officer at the New Vision refused to publish the apology letter.

He added that the next day, he received a phone call from the president asking him why the apology was not in the papers. Mirundi told the President that Kabushenga had refused to publish it.

The President comforted him and told him that it was ok he was going to talk to the First Lady.

However, Mirundi confirmed that he has forgiven Mwenda because he was used to fight wars he did not understanding.

He however swore never to forgive Lt. Col. Nakalema and Lt. Gen. Nalweyiso insisting that they frustrated his career as a person and his family suffered when he was fired.

By Grapevine Reporter

Last week, Forum for Democratic Change (FDC) leadership sitting at the party headquarters Najjanakumbi rushed to Justice Simon Mugenyi Byabakama’s Uganda Independent Electoral Commission Offices at Bugolobi a Kampala suburb to stop a clandestine process aimed at deregistering their party.

Highly placed sources at Electoral Commission revealed to theGrapevine that among the FDC leaders who stormed the Electoral Commission Offices include; Nathan Nandala Mafabi, the party Secretary General and Yusuf Nsibambi, one of the founders of the FDC and a seasoned lawyer.

At the Electoral Commission offices, Mafabi and team establish that the tip they had received about some strangers who were conniving with some Electoral Commission staff to temper with their file was very true.

Sources claim that a number of essential documents including the file containing the list of newly elected leaders from the grass root was pulled out and was missing from the file.

Sources said that Mafabi had to rush back to their Najjanankumbi office to get the new list of the leaders and put it back into the file.

Last week, after being nominated to contest for the position of the party national vice president in charge of Buganda, Nsibambi told party members at Najjanankumbi that all efforts by Dr. Kizza Besigye’s Katonga faction to register their passed resolution at their illegal extra-delegates conference failed because they are not recognised by the Electoral Commission which is the supreme supervisor of all political parties in the country.

He explained that it is only the Najjanankumbi faction that is recognised by the Electoral Commission because it has the party stamp.

He guided that all people who wish to stand on FDC ticket in the coming 2026 general elections have to get recommendation from Najjanakumbi not Katonga.

FDC insiders told theGrapevine that the reason why Dr. Besigye’s Katonga team were fighting hard to make sure that Birigwa’s extraordinary delegates conference is held was they wanted to get resolutions to deregister FDC in order to frustrate Mafabi’s faction.

The move was kept secret and not publicly announced like other resolutions that were passed and announced by Kira Municipality legislator Ibrahim Ssemujju Nganda, the party spokesperson.

Besigye faction held their delegates conference in the presence of the Court Order issued by the Civil Division of the High Court stopping it.

Sources claim that the list of names pulled out of the FDC file at the Electoral Commission was set to be replaced with the names of people who attended Birigwa’s extra-ordinary delegates’ conference.

The FDC Constitution allows that the party can be deregistered if a resolution is passed by the party’s top organ.

This is what Besigye’s group wanted to successfully execute so that they make Mafabi’s coming delegates conference illegal.

Nsibambi confirmed that the only delegates conference that is going to elect the new party leadership will be held on 6^th October, 2023.

However, Mubarak Munyagwa, the former Kawempe South legislator who is also Dr. Kizza Besigye’s diehard denied the allegations that the Electoral Commission declined to receive the resolutions made at Birigwa’s delegates conference insisting that there is no way their resolutions can be denied.

He explained that their acting Secretary General, appointed at Birigwa’s meeting Harold Kaija will file their resolutions with the Electoral Commission before the end of this week.

When contacted, Paul Bukenya the spokesperson of the Electoral Commission declined to comment on the matter. He advised FDC members to clean their house internally instead of using the Electoral Commission to fight their battles.

Last week, Justice Byabakama pleaded with both parties fighting over FDC leadership to follow the country’s laws and laws that govern political parties.

He explained that the Electoral Commission has not yet been officially informed about the ongoing wars apart from seeing correspondence from both parties on social media.

By Sengooba Alirabaki

Professor Samuel Sejjaaka, the chairman Board of Directors Nation Media Group (NGM), the publishers of Daily monitor newspaper revealed that the search for the company’s Managing Director has kicked off after Tony Glencross tendered in his early retirement prayer and it was allowed.

In the Statement, Sejjaaka stated that effective from 31^st December, 2023, Glencross will be officially retiring and as per now, the board is undertaking a competitive recruitment process to identify a suitable replacement.

South African born Glencross joined Monitor Publication in 2015 and has spearheaded its transformation from print media company to a multimedia company.

Highly placed sources at Nation Media told theGrapevine that politics and the bad economy forced Glenscross, a former Commercial Officer at Vission Group, to retire. A source said that the company has failed to recover from the economic shock that many companies are currently suffering from as a result of the Covid-19 long lockdowns and the Russia-Ukraine war.

The monitor paper circulation has since declined because the pockets of most readers are yawning due to the bad economy.

There is also the issue of bad politics. Insiders allege that Glencross has been working under pressure especially from top government officials who are always attacking the company for working against the government.

On several occasions, President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni declared Monitor a ‘bad paper’ to the extent of suing the publication over defamation.

In Monitor’s legal battle with Museveni, Justice Musa Ssekaana of the Civil Division of the High Court ordered them to pay Shs300m as damages to the President.

Museveni always alleges that Monitor publication is working for bad foreign agents.

A source at Monitor further revealed that the newspaper’s private advertisement has dropped yet government is also taking long to pay for their adverts.

Glencross’ early retirement comes days after New Vision Managing Director Don Wanyama warned the company’s current and prospective shareholders of an impending loss for the year 2022/2023.

Wanyama based his announcement on the “preliminary assessment” of the company’s performance by the Board of Directors, which is expected to return a loss for the year.

He explained that the company’s bad performance is as a result of the recent price hikes of inputs like; newsprint and other raw material inputs resulting from global supply chain disruptions.

He added that the company’s revenues are dominated by printing which accounts for almost half, followed by broadcasting (radio and television) outlets, commercial printing and others.

“The main contributor to this performance is the challenging business environment due to slow business recovery from the COVID-19 impact on newspaper sales and advertising revenue spent across the different platforms,”  Wanyama stated.

Highly placed sources at both Monitor and New Vision intimated to theGrapevine that plans are underway to cut on the number of staff and costs of operations.

By Sengooba Alirabaki