Teddy Ssezi Cheeye: Lion of bold journalism goes to rest

RIP. Teddy Ssezi Cheeye

What you need to know:

  • Cheeye’s ancestry is not obvious, and little is known about Cheeye’s early schooling.
  • When they founded The Monitor, the idea was that Uganda Confidential be conjoined with the latter but Cheeye concentrated on the Uganda Confidential, although Obbo and Wafula edited for him as he single-handedly sourced information for the publication.
  • Cheeye would later face the test of his life when he was appointed director of economic monitoring in the Internal Security Organisation, but it was what it was, a poisoned chalice.
  • Before that, he was jailed for embezzling Shs120 million from the Global Fund.

Teddy Ssezi Cheeye has bitten the dust, and died with his boots on. The circumstances of how he came to a sticky end are as queer as the image of a man who lived a multi-coloured life. On Thursday evening he, according to family members, took a stroll and a motorcyclist rode him to the grave yard, drawing a 59-year-old curtain. Speculation regarding the manner of his passing is already rife, but that is a matter for our crime experts to burn the midnight oil over.
For now, a recap of a man who devoted a fair chunk of his adult life splitting atoms in the pages, and airwaves; taking a seat at the table of some of the country’s, if not the region’s outstanding journalists, will suffice.

In a country with more than half of the population under the age of 30, Cheeye might as well be a figure difficult to relate with, the way today’s football enthusiasts may frown at praise of Diego Maradona, an Argentine retired footballer many regard as the greatest football player of all time.

Cheeye’s ancestry is not obvious, and little is known about Cheeye’s early schooling. Monitor Publications Limited co-founder and former Leader of the Opposition in Parliament, Mr Wafula Oguttu, says from his interactions with the deceased, he wasn’t forthright about his academic journey. Mr Wafula compares him to recently ejected South African president Jacob Zuma, who with limited schooling, emerged top of his society as a self-taught man.
“He was passionate about figures and economics but he actually didn’t go far with school, it is only when he joined government that he studied economics,” Mr Oguttu said in an interview with Daily Monitor.
That in itself represents a generation of Ugandans driven by passion and enthusiasm, hungry to make their mark, albeit many not schooled in journalism and in cases like Cheeye’s with wanting qualifications. If his academic background contrasted with his stellar rise to stardom proves anything, it is the sheer power of determination meeting potential unlocked.

And so a man with no university training gets into a newsroom and makes his mark. Like Maradona or singer Tupac Shakur’s outstanding performance, Cheeye’s rise in the Ugandan media requires one to flip through the pages of the socio-political context of the time. Charles Onyango Obbo, who, alongside Wafula, Cheeye and four others founded The Monitor, brings to life the epoch under which Cheeye penetrated the steel wall. Writing on August 31, 2012 in celebration of Monitor’s 20th anniversary, Obbo shared: “Ninety per cent of journalists who got into political trouble went into exile in the West..”

About Cheeye, he writes: “On a couple of occasions, Wafula, Ssezi Cheeye (then having freshly started The Uganda Confidential that would go on to ruffle very many feathers), and I sat and discussed the issue of journalists going into exile. We decided that whatever the risk, we would never run, and we would never hide. We believed that if we stayed put, the practice of journalists running to embassies for help would end. For all of Cheeye’s faults, he was really the first to take the blows and stand put.”

When they founded The Monitor, the idea was that Uganda Confidential be conjoined with the latter but Cheeye concentrated on the Uganda Confidential, although Obbo and Wafula edited for him as he single-handedly sourced information for the publication.

Source of inspiration
Such was Cheeye’s enigmatic status that the generation in the media after Mr Wafula and Mr Obbo to date, look at his contribution with awe. The Independent magazine chief Andrew Mwenda, says: “He was harassed and jailed but his efforts paid off. Subjects that had been taboo now became common themes in the media... he left a mark on the Ugandan journalist by the sheer courage he exhibited when criticizing government. He inspired all of us and up to now, his portrait hangs in the reception area of The Independent [offices] as one of those men who inspired us in journalism.”
Cheeye would later face the test of his life when he was appointed director of economic monitoring in the Internal Security Organisation, but it was what it was, a poisoned chalice. He now was at the heart of the country’s war against graft. He would later share how frustrating the job was, thanks to a clogged system. Before that, he was jailed for embezzling Shs120 million from the Global Fund.

For six years and eight months, the champion of bold media was in the dungeons, a time in which, according to Uganda Prisons Service commissioner general, Dr Johnson Byabashaija, “he was extra-ordinarily disciplined and spent most time in the library”. Upon his release, he went hysterical about how he was framed, telling old comrade Mr Wafula on two coffee dates that he was a victim of the mafia. His conviction and sentence, however, were upheld by the Supreme Court.
To Mr Wafula, those coffee dates returned memories of conversations they had before Cheeye joined the regime he had made a career exposing, and warning of how he had given himself a key to hell. He didn’t listen then, yet he didn’t regret years later.

At 59, he was starting to pick the pieces but his creator’s calendar had different programmes. The media landscape he left in 2009 had fundamentally changed and Uganda had more complex challenges than he left in 2009. It would have been interesting to watch Cheeye rebuild the castle crushed by his own success and misdeeds, some of which bordered on gross sexual impropriety, but his candle burnt out in a flicker.

What some journalists say about Cheeye
Onapito Ekomoloit, former presidential press secretary. He epitomised the overlaps in independence and interdependence between journalists and the state. A lot of journalists later walked his path when they joined government. He pioneered that dilemma and the complexity of dealing with [President] Museveni.

Andrew Mwenda, founder of The Independent magazine. Cheeye was the first journalist under the NRM administration to forcefully and boldly seek and succeed in expanding the frontiers of media freedom and freedom of expression generally in Uganda. He dared speak truths to power and challenge those in authority.

Chris Obore, director of communications at Parliament. Cheeye represented courage and boldness in journalism as he would take on sensitive issues and inconvenience those with power. However, he fell victim to journalism in poor economies and (his journalism) became more personalised than issue-based.

Wafula Oguttu, Monitor Publications Limited co-founder. Legacy. His [Cheeye’s] major contribution was the courage he brought to the media, championing against corruption. He feared no one, didn’t fear for his life or closure of his publication. He wrote as long as he thought it was right,”