Frank Bwekumbule, a radio Journalist with Impact FM, and two Masaka-based TikTokers have been remanded to Masaka Central Prison on charges of Impersonation and hate speech.
Bwekumbule and the co-accused, Frank Kaggwa and Joseph Kikaawa Buguda, were charged before the Masaka Grade One Magistrate Abdullah Kayiza.
They were arrested following a complaint filed by Justine Nameere, the incoming Masaka City Woman Member of Parliament.
It is alleged that they used their social media channels to spread malicious content against Nameere. It is alleged that they accused her of fraud.
According to the charge sheet, the accused persons, with ill intentions, impersonated journalists and recorded video clips which they published and circulated through various platforms, to taint Nameere’s public reputation.
It is alleged that the trio went out as journalists to interview Cissy Nanyange, a coffee nursery operator in Masaka, who was accusing Nameere of declining to pay a 15-millionShillings debt for the seedlings she supplied during campaigns.
Records on the court file suggest that the trio deliberately intended to malign the complainant, and they did not apply any journalistic principles, yet they are purporting to be.
Despite pleading not guilty to the charges and filing bail applications, the Magistrate remanded them to 07th May, when the prosecution will be available to respond to their prayers.
The Magistrate ruled that because the State Attorney who was allocated the file was not present in court to respond to their bail applications, the court found it not appropriate to discharge the suspects, thereby preferring to defer the matter to a future date, when prosecution will be present.
Pius Kabiswa, a lawyer who represented the accused persons, noted that he was surprised that no State Attorney showed up to prosecute the matter, yet their offices are situated a few meters from the court premises.
”We are going to have discussions with other colleagues to find a way forward, because one of the suspects is visibly sick he needs to get medical attention. After all, even the charge preferred against them is just shabby, and the charges have since been amended repeatedly, a direct implication that the state is being misguided by some invisible forces,” he indicated.
Farish Magembe, the President of the Greater Masaka Journalists Association (GREMAJA), expresses reservations on how the matter has been handled, suspecting that both the police and the court failed to exercise their professional independence while dispensing their duties.
He says that ever since the suspects were arrested, the police have been acting suspiciously towards them, to the extent that the Masaka City Police Commander Maurice Ooye issued express instructions to deny them visitors and not to grant them police bonds, allegations he, however, denies.