Government chief whip and Ruhinda North MP Thomas Tayebwa has denied employing his relatives, including his uncle, in his office, and demanded an apology from Daily Monitor and its reporter Stephen Kafeero on a story claiming he and Prime Minister Robinah Nabbanja employed their relatives.
Commenting on the story, Tayebwa said: “Thank you, Daily Monitor, for adding three relatives to our family. I did not know I have an uncle called Muruhura Moses, a relative called Muheebwa Henry and a niece called Atuheire Annah. I will organise for them an initiation ceremony into Mzee Daudi’s family.”
Hours later, he instructed his lawyers to demand an apology from Kafeero and Daily Monitor management or else he will drag them to court.
Here is Chief Whip Thomas Tayebwa’s notice to Daily Monitor:
Mr. Tabu Butagira,
Mr. Stephen Kafeero
Reporter, Monitor Publications.
Dear Sirs,
RE: DEMAND OF A RETRACTION AND APOLOGY/NOTICE OF INTENTION TO SUE
We represent Hon. Thomas Tayebwa, the Govemment Chief Whip who has instructed us in respect of your sensational and libellous statements contained in your Sunday Monitor No. 262 of September 19, 2021.
Your front-page headline prominently entitled “Nabbanja, Tayebwa fill offices with relatives” is full of shocking, reckless and defamatory statements and constitutes libel per se.
Hon. Tayebwa is quite frankly dismayed by the depth and outright lies you published with the aim of tarnishing his name and misleading the public as to his integrity and candour for your material and nefarious benefit.
The story is full of false, defamatory, destructive and replete with downright fabrications which you fully know to be untrue, thereby exposing you to liability for damages. For example, you claim that Muruhura Moses, Atuheire Annah and Muheebwa Henry are relatives of Hon. Tayebwa which is patently false.
You should know that Hon. Thomas Tayebwa is notin any way involved in the recruitment and appointment of staff in Parliament.
This is by law the preserve of the Parliamentary Commission to which he is not a member.
The conduct of Mr. Kafeero, your reporter was aimed at maximising the reputational damage to our Client.
He only contacted our Client regarding this story on Saturday, the September 48th 2021 at 11:03 am. Our Client shared the contact of the Director in the Office of the Leader of Government Business and also guided that he would be in a better position to provide the required information regarding this sensitive matter.
Mr. Kafeero was disdainful and ignored this guidance and instead went ahead to publish the defamatory information by 3pm on the same day.
The conduct of Mr. Kafeero showed a pre-determined mind, devoid of, unwilling or unable to interrogate facts and write a balanced story. The timeline and conduct of Mr. Kafeero showed that your story was clearly calculated to defame Hon. Tayebwa.
We accordingly demand that you immediately cease any further false publications against Hon. Tayebwa, remove the statements from all your platforms, publicly apologise and confirm you will not in future publish such statements again.
For avoidance of doubt, the apology must be clear, succinct and approved by us and with the same prominence as the defamatory story.
Failure to do so within 7 days will leave Hon. Tayebwa with no option but to pursue all available actions and remedies against you personally.
Yours faithfully,
Ortus Advocates
Cc: Managing Director, Tony Glencross
Cc: General Manager, Editorial, Daniel Kalinaki
