T he Managing Director
Monitor Publications Ltd
Dear Mr. Tom Mushindi
RE: RESIGNATION
This is to formally inform you that I have decided to resign from being a
Political Editor of Daily Monitor newspaper and from being a radio talk-show
host on KFM. I have considered your request to return to Monitor and decided
against it.
I have also considered your request that I at least resume writing my Sunday
column and again decided that I should take more time before I accept to do
so. Since I have been on unpaid leave from Monitor for a long while now, I
would like my resignation to take immediate effect.
I have worked at Monitor since January 1994; first as a student intern
during my first year as a student of journalism at Makerere University and
since September 1996 as a full time employee. In fact, I am currently the
longest serving journalist at the newspaper. During this period, I served
Monitor with dedication and integrity.
Almost every year of my work at Monitor, I won a certificate of excellence.
I broke the biggest stories in the country, hosted the greatest names on
radio and in many cases even attracted the largest advertisements. Monitor
readers and KFM listeners responded generously to my articles and radio
shows because I upheld our core values of independence, truth, accuracy,
courage and balance.
Monitor was for me more than a workplace. It was more importantly an
institution that embodied the values that I cherish dearly - freedom,
liberty, independence and professional journalism. The founders of Monitor
did not begin the newspaper for money. They did so to create a platform
through which Ugandans could freely and openly debate public issues. This
attracted me to Monitor. Over the years, Monitor faced many threats from the
state as a business. However, at no one time did the founders sacrifice its
core values and heritage to safeguard it as a business.
In fact, many of us suffered state harassment, went to jail and spent years
in court on criminal trials for defending free expression in Uganda. Right
now I am personally facing 15 criminal charges for expressing myself freely.
It is our firm stand in defence of liberty that inspired many people and
brought us readers and listeners. These gave us revenue and attracted
advertisers which made the company successful as a business. By placing our
core values above commercial concerns, we created a public space that many
Ugandans, many of them in high government offices, came to value dearly.
However, during my fellowship year at Stanford University, I was saddened to
learn that the major shareholder, Mr. Karim Al-Hussaini (commonly known as
The Aga Khan) unilaterally suspended my articles from being published in
Daily and Sunday Monitor.
Although the board of directors revoked the decision, I am not convinced
that Monitor can regain its independence. I have consulted widely and
thought deeply about Mr. Al-Hussaini's arbitrary directive and reached a
conclusion that the editorial environment at Monitor is no longer conducive
to free and unfettered debate of public issues in the country especially the
presidency.
The interference of the major shareholder in the editorial details of the
newspaper is a tragic development. This is especially so because of his
other business interests in the country. He has increasingly undermined the
paper's editorial independence and its contribution to democracy and
accountability in our country.
I have been informed by journalists and editors that they are not allowed to
write stories critical of the president and his family. The air in the
editorial rooms is suffocating. I hold the values of independence from the
state so dearly that I cannot work in such an environment.
In sending his directive, Mr. Al-Hussaini was abusing his powers as a major
shareholder. Media shareholders are not supposed to deliberately undermine
the professional independence of media organisations.
Mr. Al-Hussaini can only do this in Africa because somehow, anyone who is
anything on our continent tends to act with impunity. A president steals
from and kills his own citizens. An investor makes decisions about the
company and disregards shareholders, employees and the values and the
heritage of the organisation.
That has been the persistent message of disillusionment on our continent! I
have done some consultations and learnt that Mr. Hussaini did not consult
other shareholders in both Nation Media Group and in Monitor Publications
Limited - who actually hold the majority shares in both companies - before
sending his directive. He did not even consult the board of directors of NMG
in Nairobi, nor of MPL in Kampala.
This arbitrary use of power is symptomatic of the way Mr. Museveni has been
ruling Uganda and what I have been critical of. Does Mr. Al Hussaini think
that only his interests matter and those of other shareholders don't? Does
he think that MPL employees are not stakeholders in the company - even if
they are not shareholders?
Doesn't he consider the aspirations of the Ugandan people? Africa has seen
many "investors" who traded blood diamonds, gold, Colton, oil etc as the
countries in which they made huge profits collapsed under the weight of
ethnic strife, civil war and abject poverty. I hope that Mr. Al-Hussaini has
taken lessons from that experience.
I have also learnt that the instructions from Paris are that Monitor should
desist from writing about the first family. I have been reliably informed
that Mr. Museveni had a meeting with Mr. Al-Hussaini and another with the
executives of Nation from Nairobi. In both meetings, Mr. Museveni showed
them an article I had written before leaving for Stanford titled "Isn't the
first family fleecing us?"
The article laid bare incontrovertible evidence on how the state in Uganda
has been turned into a private estate of Mr. Museveni. I am reliably
informed that Mr. Museveni requested both Mr. Al-Hussaini and the Nation
executives not only to stop my articles from being published in Daily
Monitor, but for me to be fired from the company.
Sometime in 2006, Mr. Museveni addressed a meeting of the Central Executive
Committee of his ruling party. He told them that he had defeated the
opposition in Uganda and that both the FDC and Dr. Kizza Besigye were in
disarray. Mr. Museveni then said the only remaining opposition is Andrew
Mwenda.
"He is the only one who uses facts and figures to challenge our policies and
programs in the newspapers and on his radio show. How can this one boy hold
us at ransom?" Museveni challenged his party colleagues. He then promised
that if the NRM cannot challenge me intellectually, he will seek to silence
me from the Ugandan public debate.
These developments are important. They should have been sufficient evidence
that in the absence of a strong opposition political party, Monitor provides
the most effective public forum through which alternative ideas, policies
and programs
can be debated in our country. But it also shows that Monitor needs to be
bolder; to pry more into the activities of Mr. Museveni in his efforts to
personalise the state. Instead, Monitor is being forced by one shareholder
to cover-up the decay taking place in our country.
In return, the major shareholder is given more investment deals in Uganda. I
am a citizen of Uganda, not a mercenary. I therefore cannot betray the
future of my country in order to retain the privilege of working or writing
for Monitor. The future of Uganda is more than anything that money can buy.
Mr. Museveni has always employed blackmail to get his way. He has severally
threatened to close Monitor in order to force the paper to lose its
editorial independence. He closed Nation TV for two months in order to force
Mr. Al Hussaini to clump down on Monitor's independence.
While I respect the interest of Mr. Al-Hussaini's to increase his investment
in Uganda, I despise his attempts to do so at the expense of freedom,
liberty and democracy in our country. Indeed, only a democratic dispensation
can guarantee the security of his property rights in Uganda. Succumbing to
blackmail only makes him more vulnerable to more blackmail not only in
Uganda, but the East African region.
For example, what will happen if Daily Nation in Kenya publishes an article
unfavourable about Mr. Museveni? Won't Mr. Museveni threaten to close
Monitor or KFM or Nation TV in Uganda in order to force Mr. Al-Hussaini to
clump down on Nation in Kenya? Totalitarian control does not come in a
gallop, but in a creep.
Before long, Mr. Museveni may be encouraged to employ his blackmail to
influence the media coverage of presidential and parliamentary elections in
Tanzania and Kenya. Mr. Al-Hussaini is setting a dangerous precedent in our
region. Indeed, his business interests and monopoly of the media in this
region may threaten our emerging democracies.
When I visited Monitor, the air in the newsroom and other editorial rooms
smelt terrible. Reporters are afraid to write stories because they are
unsure of the consequences. A previously proud, ambitious and highly
intelligent crop of independent journalists have been intimidated into
acquiescing to the machinations of an illegitimate regime. A thriving and
independent media house has been turned into a supplicant of a corrupt,
tribal and nepotistic dictatorship.
Because Monitor has succumbed to bribes and intimidation from the state, it
is no longer the institution I was once proud to serve. It has lost its
soul. It has betrayed its readers and listeners. It has betrayed Uganda. It
has betrayed Africa. It has betrayed the cause of liberty and freedom. It
has betrayed humankind. I cannot be an accomplice to this death of a dream
whether because of state intimidation or of sweet heart business deals
between the chief of state and the major shareholder. To do so would be
identical to the action of Judas Iscariot who betrayed Jesus for 30 pieces
of silver.
As you take on this challenging job, I would advise you to seriously
consider your own position at Monitor. You are a highly respected journalist
with international credibility. It will be tragic if you go down in history
as the man who presided over the adulteration of an independent newspaper in
Uganda that was setting an example for the rest of Africa. It will also be
tragic when you fall like many other Africans, especially the politicians,
who have sacrificed the future of this continent at the Alter of a job.
I feel very proud of the contribution Monitor has made to Uganda's faltering
democracy. I also feel proud of my contribution to Uganda through Monitor.
Monitor made me who I am, and it will remain a cherished institution in my
heart. I thus leave Monitor not with any bitterness, but with a lot of pride
in what we stood for.
But I also leave with a lot of disappointment. It is tragic that the
business interests of one person - the major shareholder - have so gravely
trampled the interests of all other shareholders and the aspirations of the
people of Uganda for freedom and accountability.
I wish Monitor good luck and hope that it will find the wherewithal to
rehabilitate its damaged reputation in the hearts of the people of Uganda. I
hope that you will be able to convene a joint meeting of the board of NMG
and MPL to discuss the increasing interference of the major shareholder in
the editorial work of monitor.
As for me, I can never betray the cause of liberty. Liberty is an ideal for
which I am willing to live for, work for to see strengthened and if needs
be, it is an ideal for which I am prepared to die.
Sincerely
Andrew M. Mwenda
cc. Linus Gitahi NMG CEO
cc. Wangethi Mwangi, NMG ED
cc. Martha Elimu, HR Manager
cc. HR Director, NMG
cc. Peter Kimanthi, FC
cc. Joachim Buwembo, ME
cc. Peter Kaba, Radio Manager
cc. MPL Board
cc. NMG Board
The Mulindwas Communication Group
"With Yoweri Museveni, Uganda is in anarchy"
Groupe de communication Mulindwas
"avec Yoweri Museveni, l'Ouganda est dans l'anarchie"
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