Mathias Mpuuga Demands 200M From Daily Monitor Over ‘Defamatory’ Article

The leader of the Opposition in the Parliament of Uganda, Mathias Mpuuga has threated to sue the Daily Monitor newspaper over an article in which the daily claims he was involved in backdoor deals that culminated into the Bail of embattled Members of Parliament Allan Ssewanyana and Muhammad Ssegirinya.

Yesterday, the High Court in Masaka granted a UGX 40M Cash Bail to the two MPs after more than a year in detention and fruitless litigation.

In an investigative piece published on Tuesday, the Daily Monitor claims the release of the MPs and the ‘softened’ stance of State prosecutors towards the MPs’ Bail application was as a result of clandestine negotiations and bargains between several government officials noteably the Speaker of Parliament, Anita Annet Among, her Deputy, Thomas Tayebwa, an unnamed team of security officials and the Leader of Opposition in Parliament, Mathias Mpuuga – also MP of Masaka City on the National Unity Platform (NUP) ticket.

” Our investigations reveal a complex web of secret talks powered by Parliament’s top leadership and in which the Leader of Opposition played a key role reportedly outside of [NUP President] Bobi Wine’s purview leading to a deal making meeting last month between the accused lawmakers and a senior government executive, expected to soon result in the freedom of National Unity Platform party supporters being tried by the Army Court.”

The Newspaper reported, in part.

” Despite the official denial, the role of Mr Mpuuga in the talks manifested in public when it emerged that he had attended a closed-door meeting that Mr Tayebwa convened with security and intelligence chiefs. The fate of the incarcerated lawmakers and other NUP supporters was a top agendum, multiple sources said.”

The report goes on.

Now, in an ‘intention to sue’ letter, the Leader of Opposition says the Article is defamatory of him and demands an apology and that it be pulled down for it has injured his reputation and subjected him to ‘untold psychological torture.’

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“The above statements are false and only intended to denigrate our Client, tarnish his name and were indeed understood by all the right thinking members of society to mean that our client is; an unprincipled political leader, a person of double standards and untrustworthy and dishonest.”

Mpuuga’s lawyers from Lukwago and Co. Advocates write in a letter addressed to the Managing Director of Monitor Publications Ltd, the Parent company of the Daily Monitor newspaper.

Mpuuga has given the newspaper a week to heed his warning or otherwise he institutes legal proceedings against it.

On top of these demands, Mpuuga wants the Newspaper to pay him 200M Uganda Shillings as damages plus 10% of this sum as legal costs.
The Daily Monitor is yet to respond.