Who has ruled 2022? - Men of the year

Galacticos. With the economy fully re-opened after the Covid-19 pandemic, the country has been a beehive of activity. From politics, law, music and film we have decided to shine a light on some of the men who have ruled this year in these different fields, writes Isaac Ssejjombwe.

Phillip Wokorach-Rugby

Phillip Wokorach was the top scorer as Uganda won the Africa Cup Sevens. He was the Top points’ scorer at the 2022 Commonwealth Games, scored the winning try at the Rugby World Cup Sevens to beat Germany in the Bowl competition and is the only rugby player to play both 7s and 15s for Uganda this year.

Riazat Ali Shah-Cricket

Uganda won the inaugural ACA Africa T20 Cup after Riazat Ali Shah’s unbeaten 98 saw them defeat Tanzania by 8 wickets in the final. This was the first standalone regional T20I tournament organised by the Africa Cricket Association (ACA), coinciding with the 25th anniversary of the board’s formation. The Africa T20 was played in Benoni, South Africa, and featured eight teams from across the continent.

Joshua Cheptegei-Athletics

Joshua Cheptegei is the tenth man in history to hold the 5,000 m and 10,000 m world records concurrently. He became only the fourth man to win back to back 10,000m world titles, following in the footsteps of Ethiopia’s Haile Gebrselassie and Kenenisa Bekele and Britain’s Mo Farah earning him Uganda’s Greatest Athlete of All Time.

Cheptegei won gold both in the 5,000m and 10,000m World champion in this year’s World Athletics Championship. 

This year, he also won the Cannes 10km road race with a new World-leading and French all-comers record in the 10Km in 26 minutes and 49 seconds.

Joel Ssenyonyi - Cosase chairman

Former NTV news anchor was elected Nakawa West Legislator in 2020 while a year later, he was elected chairman of COSASE (Committee on Commissions, Statutory Authorities and State Enterprises) which was initially under FDC’s Mubarak Munyagwa.

Ever since his election, Ssenyonyi has been in the news over the work of his committee like the probe into the mismanagement of Uganda Airlines where the committee says the airline management failed to take stock of inventories which consisted of engineering stores (expendable parts) and general stores.

In the submitted report, the MPs found out that the airline carried out procurements without the approval of the contracts committee which they say was against the law since it sidesteps transparency of the procurement process.

Disparities in salaries of staff holding the same positions for example; director maintenance earns shs80 million, director flight operations shs40 million, director commercial, shs40 million, some cabin crew earned shs4 million while others shs2 million. There was no justification for the differences in these amounts. That some staff lacked the prerequisite academic documents to hold the positions they currently hold at the airline and that Ms Jennifer Bamuturaki should be held responsible for the irregular contract and she should refund the shs 156 million that was spent on online bloggers.

The COSASE committee also looked into UNRA where they wanted UNRA officials led by Allen Kagina to explain why diversions were made on sh124b budgeted for several projects.

Morris Mugisha-Film

Morris Mugisha is a multi-award filmmaker whose recent film Tembele has become the first Ugandan film to be preselected by the Uganda Oscars Committee for possible nomination in the Best International Feature category at this year’s Academy Awards commonly known as the Oscars.

During the 9th Uganda Film Festival award gala at the Uganda Institute of Information and Communications Technology grounds Nakawa last year, his Tembele film won Best Feature Film while Patriq Nkakalukanyi won best actor in a feature film while Cosmas Serubogo won best supporting actor in a feature film still. 

His Tembele movie still won the Best cinematography at Africa academy movie awards in Nigeria as well.  

Joseph Beyanga aka Joe Walker

Joseph Beyanga, alias Joe Walker, the head of radio at Nation Media Group- Uganda, earlier this year walked 320kilometres from Kampala to Bushenyi. he started his walk on February 28 to landing in Bsuhenyi, his home district  on March 12.

This was a ‘Stay in Your Lane campaign’ that he spearheaded on twitter, mobilizing social media users to hold road users-mostly motorists in Kampala, accountable.

The walk was also in celebration of his 45th birthday which he dedicated to his father. His father Emmanuel Batsikana walked from Bushenyi to Kampala in 1945 to create a better life for his family and community.

Beyanga promised to translate his passion into an exciting tour for more people to emulate in future, while highlighting the need for safe roads and healthy living.

According to statistics, more than 12 people die per day in road accidents in Uganda, translating to more than 3,663 deaths annually. The majority of the victims are pedestrians and boda bodas.

Thomas Tayebwa

The Deputy Speaker of Parliament, Thomas Tayebwa warned the European Union in November  2022 not to force its beliefs of homosexuality and abortion onto African societies.

Tayebwa said the influence of western lifestyles risks destroying family units and society and he said this while speaking at the sidelines of the 61st session of the Organisation of the African, Caribbean and Pacific States Parliamentary Assembly (OACP SPA) and 42nd Session of the ACP-European Union joint Parliamentary Assembly (ACP-EU JPA) in Maputo City, Mozambique where he was leading a Uganda delegation that included Members of Parliament.

“We are demanding that we broadly define the issue of human rights. We have discovered that with the Post Cotonou agreement, there are hidden clauses around human rights. Clauses to do with Sexuality, promotion of LGBT/homosexuality and clauses to do with abortion,” he said.

Tayebwa said such practices are un-Africa and while “the EU is demanding that we take a certain route, they should also know the character of our society”.

Representatives from the pro-gay nations insist on an amendment to the ACP-EU rules to have the debate on the rights of homosexuals even after objections from African members.

Isaac Ssemakadde - lawyer

Last year, lawyer Isaac Kimaze Ssemakadde made headlines during his encounter with Kampala Member of Parliament Muhammad Nsereko. But earlier on, he started getting noticed because of his hairstyle.

Lawyers are always neat with well shaven heads but the outspoken lawyer grew dreads.

He defended his look saying that man has to evolve with the times.

“We shall not let the times pass us by, and I am still a very young man. I am allowed to do a little bit of experiential fashion procedures. It paid off, didn’t it? I mean, it broke the Internet,” he revealed during one of his earlier interviews.

Ssemakadde this year petitioned the East African Court of Justice seeking to quash the recently enacted Computer Misuse Amendment Act of 2022. According to him, the law infringes on the principles of democracy, rule of law, accountability, transparency, social justice, and equal opportunities.

He also opposed the move by the Director of Public Prosecutions to take over the privately instituted suit of offensive communication and criminal libel against him after lawyer Robert Rutaro Muhairwe filed a criminal case against him for allegedly attacking the Civil Division High Court Judge, Musa Ssekaana on his Twitter handle using obscene words meant to embarrass him and lower his self-esteem in front of right-thinking members of the society.

Eddy Kenzo - Artiste

From winning East Africa’s first BET award, Eddy Kenzo has gone ahead to get a Grammy nomination. The artiste was nominated in the Best Global Music performance category.

The song in which he was featured Gimme Love alongside American artiste Matt B will be competing with Udhero Na, by Arooj Aftab and Anoushka Shankar, Last Last, by Burna Boy, Neva Bow Down, by Rocky Dawuni featuring Blvk H3ro and Bayethe, Wouter Kellerman, Zakes Bantwini and Nomcebo Zikode in the 65 annual ceremony that will take place on Feb 5 at Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles.