Kabushenga now sees NRM misdeeds he used to ignore

On the afternoon of November 6, 2013, in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa, Robert Kabushenga, then CEO of Vision Group, spoke at a public debate that was part of an annual convention organised by the African Media Leaders Forum.

I had travelled from Doha, Qatar, to attend the three-day convention. The Eshetu Chloe Building, which houses the Faculty of Business and Economics at Addis Ababa University, was the debate’s venue.

Mr Kabushenga, clad in blue jeans and a black jacket, addressed a packed auditorium. 

Topic? Are African Media Capable of Transforming the Continent? He spoke well, going by the audience’s rapt attention, and when he was done, he got a round of applause.

During question time, I asked Mr Kabushenga how the media can transform Africa when news organisations like the one he was leading were failing to hold individuals in power to account. (In Ethiopia, journalists criticising the country’s autocratic rule were languishing in prison, and the local media was not reporting their imprisonment.)

Mr Kabushenga’s answer was surprising. He made snide comments, casting aspersions on my integrity, which I am sure he knew nothing about because he does not know me. It was ad hominem attacking someone instead of addressing what they are saying.

After the debate, I boarded a bus that was taking foreign participants back to their hotels, and minutes later, Mr Kabushenga hopped on. He sat near me and asked in Luganda: “Namiti oyagala kunzita?[Do you want to finish me off]” He did not sound angry, but he probably thought I was out to embarrass him, which was not true.

Mr Kabushenga left Vision Group in 2021 and now sees NRM’s misdeeds, which for years he either pretended not to see or completely ignored. The passage of time changes things and people in ways that are surprising.

Over the past few days, he has used his X platform to write about what he calls Coffee Scam Disclosure. It is not a hashtag, but I think it would have done well as one. And perhaps “exposé” would be a better word in place of “disclosure”.

But it is the seriousness of allegations in his posts that has grabbed public attention. In one post, Mr Kabushenga, a coffee farmer, alleges that a “political order” was given and $20m (Shs76.2b) to use his own words  disbursed to a man named Nelson Tugume. “This money is meant to finance coffee export trade”, Mr Kabushenga wrote, “but as some of us kept pointing out, this money has since ended up in Nelson’s private account.”

If this is true, it means Mr Tugume pocketed this fantastically large sum for doing pretty much nothing. 

Mr Kabushenga’s social media posts do not disclose names of people who ordered the disbursement. They mention the Ministry of Finance and Mr Museveni’s son-in-law, Odrek Rwabwogo, a former New Vision journalist who introduced Mr Tugume to the President.

There are pertinent questions we need to ask. How did a man with zero track record of entrepreneurship get $20m? Why does a Tugume get millions of dollars but a Wekesa cannot? Why does a Bitature get a bailout when a Ssembule or a (Sulaiman) Kiggundu cannot get one? If this is not tribalism, what is it?

As we reflect on these questions, we have a good lesson to draw from Mr Kabushenga. When Ugandans are reaping benefits from the regime, they ignore the terrible things it has done. They attack journalists calling out the regime. When the benefits stop, they see the regime’s true colours. 

Mr Musaazi Namiti is a journalist and former, Al Jazeera digital editor in charge of the Africa desk
[email protected],@kazbuk