By Mulengera Reporters
40-year-old Michael Jjagwe faces either a jail term or fine (if not both) for pirating content and sellling TV decorders that are exclusively meant for MultiChoice Uganda.
Jjagwe’s problems began in August 2023 when one of his decorders distribution agents DJ Meddie Rostu was lured into a trap, which exploded at Kakungulu Zone in Kibuli.
Meddie Rostu, claiming to be one of the DJs working with Vision Group, put out a Facebook post publicizing and advertising his services as someone who deals in the sale and installation of Media Star Decorders.
These were portrayed to his Facebook followers as capable of availing subscribers with full access to all pay TV channels that are available on MultiChoice decorders; namely Gotv and DSTV.
The premier access, which DSTV subscribers access at Shs320,000 per month, was being availed via these Media Star decorders at just Shs30,000 for the same duration.
Closely working with MultiChoice Uganda officials, led by anti-piracy manager Charles Masanso, UCC enforcement team members leveraged the phone numbers disclosed on DJ Meddie Rostu’s Facebook advert and rang him for work.
That Saturday afternoon, Meddie Rostu was directed to a bar/home in Kakungulu zone where the undercover operatives waited to show him the premises where they wanted the DSTV-equivalent (media star) decoder installed. He turned up as promised with all his installation equipment. He was given or paid the Shs180,000 which he demanded for as the price for the purchase of the decoder and installation.
He completed the installation and the decoder properly showed everything available on MultiChoice’s premium package. It was at this point that the undercover operatives introduced themselves and told Meddie Rostu that he was under arrest for pirating SuperSport content that is exclusively licensed to MultiChoice Uganda.
He cried out loudly and declared he was a mere agent of a principal who he disclosed to be Michael Jjagwe, the powerful electronics dealer/ importer based on Anifa Tower in Kampala downtown. He led the UCC enforcement team members to an electronics shop at Aponye Mall whose owner is the one who led them to Jjagwe’s place/shop at Anifa Tower. He made it clear that Jjagwe was the source of everything and that for him he was merely a sub agent of his.
Jjagwe’s shop at Anifa Tower was searched and several counterfeit decoders of the Media Star type etc were recovered. He signed the search form and that’s how he was arrested. That was in late 2023 yet even after being several times released on police bond, Jjagwe (who is separately being pursued by URSB and UNBS too) defiantly continued with his illegal trade.
Last week, he appeared before a Magistrate at the Makindye-based Utilities & Standards Court where he was charged with several offences by state prosecutors from Uganda Communications Commission (UCC). The Kitende resident was released on bail after spending days on remand at Luzira prison. The release was based on his deteriorating health.
On that day, Charles Masanso, through whom MultiChoice Uganda complained to UCC demanding action, appeared and gave his evidence-in-chief as he was being led by UCC prosecutors namely Nasir Kagawa and Kevin Bakulumpagi. Masanso demanded that Court finds Jjagwe guilty and give him a deterrent sentence because acts of piracy defrauding MultiChoice Uganda had been on the increase since the conclusion of Qatar World Cup in 2022.
Masanso narrated to Court how in the first three months of the year 2024 alone, a total of 30,000 pirated decoders were sold in the Ugandan market which SuperSport exclusively allocated to MultiChoice Uganda whose DSTV and Gotv decoders are the only ones through which all English Premiership & UEFA champions league soccer matches are supposed to be streamed and accessed by Ugandan audiences. The same applies to tennis, rugby, cricket and formula1-related sporting activities.
Quoting a study that was done by the prestigious CEO Magazine, which the court accepted as credible, Masanso said that such piracy activities cost MultiChoice Uganda Shs2.7bn in deprived decoder sales during the first three months of 2023.
He said this isn’t only a problem for his employer by way of missed revenue but also a problem for government because of the tax revenue that would have been realized through the sale of the 30,000 decoders. He demonstrated to Court how each monthly subscription a customer pays translates into tax revenue for the government.
Charles Masanso also tendered the 19th May 2023 letter which SuperSport’s head of legal affairs Philips Livsley authored and addressed to the GoU (UCC & URSB) making it clear that all SuperSport games can only be streamed to Ugandan audiences through or via DSTV and Govt decoders only.
At the prompting of the two prosecutors from UCC, Masanso illustrated to Court how and why such pirated decoders are the reason why MultiChoice decoders sales have generally been low and declining since the conclusion of the Qatar World Cup.
He called on the Magistrate to give maximum sentence because Michael Jjagwe was a repeat offender who didn’t demonstrate any remorse even when he was facing related criminal investigations elsewhere by URSB and also by UNBS.
Yet Jjagwe (who is an experienced and big-name electronics importer from China) isn’t the only trader from downtown Kampala who the UCC prosecutors are currently tackling at the Makindye Court.
There is also Kassim Ssenyonjo who was also equally implicated by Charles Masanso’s evidence at a separate trial inside the same Utilities Court.
Masanso has been at it (fighting such piracy) for now 13 years as the relevant MultiChoice manager concerned with the same. Kassim Ssenyonjo is the other suspect being prosecuted for committing similar offences in downtown Kampala. Trading under or as “Satelite Zone,” Kassim Ssenyonjo operates from shop number D65 on the Energy Center building along Market Street in the Nakasero neighborhood.
A raid was conducted onto Ssenyonjo’s business premises and several pirated decoders of the Media Star and Senetor type were recovered by enforcement officers from UCC. Ssenyonjo too was recently released on bail after languishing in Luzira prison on remand for more than 10 days.
Charles Masanso, a resident of Nsangi’s Katale Busawula village, wants maximum sentence for both of them. He actually is one of the prosecution’s star witnesses and he is the man who the MultiChoice Uganda General Manager Hassan Saleh has deployed to be the contact person between his company and UCC whose prosecutors say they are more than ready to produce all the evidence necessary to secure conviction for such offenders whose acts are proving to be costly both to the GoU and private business companies like MultiChoice. (For comments on this story, get back to us on 0705579994 [WhatsApp line], 0779411734 & 041 4674611 or email us at mulengeranews@gmail.com).
