By Wafula Malik
Its more than two weeks since mystery philanthropist Bryan White camped in Arua Municipality ostensibly to test his popularity in the West Nile sub region. He called this a mobilization tour targeting economic transformation of economically vulnerable groups of mostly women and youths. Like he did in Mbarara, the pompous young man has been giving out all manner of goodies and hard cash.He has also had the opportunity to up his claim to fame by throwing barbs at the rapidly emerging generational leader Bobi Wine perhaps hoping to benefit from the resultant publicity. However, what is remarkable is that this tour hasn’t been publicized to the levels we saw for his Mbarara tour. Accompanied by a crowd of his henchmen and women who travelled in Coasters, White on arrival camped at Roseville Hotel. He arrived at 5pm yet some of the scribes had been mobilized (by Vision Group executive Bills) to wait for him as early as 1pm. Before coming to the Roseville, which is one of the two leading hotels that have exclusively been available for his use and occupation along with his henchmen, White first drove to the office of Arua RDC Peter Ebele with whom he had a meeting lasting hours.
This kept the ill-fated scribes yawning as they angrily and hungrily waited for the money man at Roseville hotel where he was destined to address a news conference pompously announcing his arrival. Apparently because they considered him a high profile person, the leadership of West Nile Press Association ensured each of the member media houses deployed their most senior scribes to report the event. Some media stations deployed their editors and managers to befit what they considered to be a high profile interaction with a big man from Kampala. “We unleashed the very best media personalities we have in this town but the indifference with which Bryan White treated them turned off everybody. The enthusiasm we had to cover his visit evaporated even before the press conference. These were big name reporters but the way he treated them demystified all of us,” said one of the influential Arua media personalities we spoke to for this article. After waiting for hours of hunger and exhaustion, the scribes present caucused and planned a revenge mission. Even when White finally arrived at Roseville at 5pm, the press conference didn’t begin up to 7pm and there was no explanation as to why. As they finally converged to listen to him, the scribes wore gloomy faces but unfortunately this either went unnoticed by White or he noticed the anger but simply ignored. Apparently his focus was on a one Bills, an influential Vision Group salesman, he travelled with from Kampala. On realizing the local scribes weren’t warming up to him, protesting mistreatment, White agreed with Bills that Vision Group-owned Arua1 fm (which is one of the biggest stations there) would suffice. Whereas scribes expected one on one sessions and a selfies’moment with the money man from Kampala, White totally shunned them even after addressing the news conference. In total more than 10 eminent scribes attended the presser but were overlooked even during the dinner-serving after the presser. “Bryan White’s sycophants and cheerleaders from Kampala filled the long queues at the dinner-serving table. We cried to Bills and he said ‘guys sort out yourselves. I have nothing to do for you.’
This was hurting because this Bills is the one who made phone calls inviting us for the press conference being Bryan White’s media coordinator for the tour,” ranted another media personality. Many guys hungrily walked away in protest and even the few who hang into the line bounced as food had run out by the time they made it to the serving tables. One of the Bryan White assistants offered an apology and promised a lunch/dinner refund of Shs100,000 for each scribe which too never came. This fermented more resentment towards the entire tour and scribes have since then been actively working underground to undermine White and his entire tour. “The only good publicity he has got on the media here has resulted from direct payment for the airtime through the radio management but there is no good will amongst reporters towards him,” said a source adding that even when they are contacted, editors deliberately decline to assign reporters to cover Bryan White’s engagements. “Let him use his Kampala media squad since he thinks we here don’t matter,” said an influential radio news editor. That night of the first press conference, scribes suffered having to travel late moreover on empty stomachs since morning. “Some of us sleep very far from the town and we expected at least one of his cars to be assigned to drop us because we are important people in this town but none of that happened,” ranted a scribe. What made it even a more painful experience was the decision by Bills, who kept telling scribes to wait, to eventually switch off his phone and disappear on them towards midnight.The influential scribes White is accused to have despised had come from the following media houses in Arua town; Arua1 fm, URN, NBS TV, Nile fm, New Vision, Daily Monitor and as well as the mighty Red Pepper. Others were from Catholic Church-owned radio Pacis and Anglican Church-owned Voice of Life. There was also representation from Access fm owned by rebel MP Barnabas Tinkasimire.
PAY BACK TIME;
The opportunity for the mighty scribes to show their anger came on 3rd August when White held what he called the mega launch of his West Nile tour. The venue was Arua Hill playground where the event ended in teargas after hundreds of poverty-stricken youths, mostly returnees from South Sudan where they lost their merchandize to violence, stormed the event and caused chaos. They accused White of leaving them out on the list of those he donated to. There was a stampede at the event, prompting police to fire live bullets and teargas that badly affected pregnant mothers and others that had come with their babies. The poor mothers had carried their begging bowels since they had been told this was the day to access the money man for all their problems to be solved. Instead they returned home emotionally and physically wounded and empty-handed. The scribes, who had largely shunned the man, quickly mobilized each other to ensure maximum negative publicity for the philanthropist whose source of money remains disputed to this day. In their news stories, scribes highlighted the plight of pregnant women and babies that were physically harmed in the chaos, a thing that portrayed Bryan White in bad light. Efforts by renowned gang groups (like Janjaweed, Goodlyf & Fire Heaters that each had got Shs5m from him) to counter the bad publicity remained futile as Bryan White remained a damaged man as per the narrative propagated by Arua mainstream media. Even other events that were relatively successful, including those attended by Zarie the boss lady, went largely unpublicized by the local media. Bryan White also had what he called Onduparaka charity football match in Betway Stadium and announced a 5,000 jerseys donation to the region’s football power house. This too went unreported yet its one thing from which White must have anticipated maximum positive publicity. He had another charity event in Minister Gabriel Ajedra’s Vurra constituency, which too was not adequately publicized by the local media still protesting maltreatment by Bryan White. There was also another charity event in Omugo Sub County in Terego where he drowned hundreds of elderly women in goodies and hard cash (like he was Father Christmas) but this too wasn’t adequately reported by local media. Yet that isn’t all. All the public meetings (including those controversially marketing the NRM candidate and praising the President) have been shunned by local media. He has held many such meetings both at Roseville where his squad resides and at Golden Coutts where he resides but have all been shunned by local scribes.
FAILED POLITICAL STUNT;
Then on the day Gen Muntu and other disgruntled FDC bosses defiantly stormed Arua to campaign for their old man Kassiano Wadri, Bryan White sought to deflate them by controversially driving to Barifa forest (Dorcus Inzikuru stadium outside Arua town) to where he tried to divert all the unbusy youths and women to deny Wadri/Muntu a big crowd. This move was of great political significance and stood a chance to excite and catch Museveni’s attention if it was massively reported about. It must have cost White a fortune because close to 10 fat bulls were slaughtered and roasted for the enjoyment of thousands of youths and women who flocked the event in Barifa. The young man must have reaped less political capital than he anticipated as the local media widely shunned covering this Barifa event. White, who continues to reside in Arua, anticipates to be introduced and publicly praised during the President’s (tomorrow) Monday rally but still the local scribes have vowed to continue their media blackout on him. For comments, reach Wafula Malik on 0756574392.
