By Joachim Twino
For his very daring and almost unparalleled reporting, mystery facebook bully Tom Voltaire Okwalinga (aka TVO) has for close to 10 years ruled the social media space and thereby keeping many powerful military and political officials in the Museveni government on their toes. The type of things he reported were always his and his alone. Famous for saying his speech right wasn’t negotiable, TVO always took no prisoners but sometime last year, following the chaos the Felix Kaweesi assassination sparked, a facebook account in the names of Seruga Titus emerged and ventured into space that previously was TVO’s and his exclusively. Seruga distinguished himself for mostly having crime intelligence information exposing what he insisted were the failings of Gen Kale Kayihura-led police. He reported on the conspiracies and power struggles in the Police Force consistently concluding that these led to the Kaweesi assassination. Unlike TVO, who reported on almost everything, Seruga seemed determined to concentrate on crime and the Uganda Police Force. Before the emergency of the Seruga facebook account, veteran journalist Andrew Mwenda had launched what he called an operation to unmask the real TVO. Okwalinga at that time seemed to tread more carefully as Mwenda continued creating anxiety amongst his (TVO’s) loyal facebook followers (now over 153,000). Mwenda had threatened to even expose officials in State House, Security and government who leak things to TVO. And this only created more anxiety with many of his fans concluding that TVO was finally done. So when Seruga emerged, and seemed big, some speculated that this could have been TVO’s gimmick to elude and neutralize the Mwenda challenge.
PROVES BIGGER?
But with time, Seruga Titus, about whom Kayihura (then still IGP) started worrying much more than he worried of TVO, proved way bigger than the original TVO. He reported his things in a more detailed way and many of the things he reported about came to pass particularly regarding who would be purged next in the Kayihura-led police. The Nixon Agasirwes, the Joel Agumas all got arrested following the angry public agitation in the months following the Kaweesi murder-and all this came to pass in ways Seruga Titus had reported months earlier. He always reported who in the security apparatus was the President angry against-and this came to be publicly witnessed weeks later. Such precise accurate reporting of events turned Seruga Titus into a facebook sensation and many TVO followers as well became Seruga’s. This track record of reporting things that came to precisely pass in ways he had reported earlier, prompted some newspapers to begin relying on Seruga Titus’ facebook wall for tips to enrich their crime intelligence reporting. But Seruga also differed from TVO in very easily noticeable ways. He appeared politically non-partisan only concentrating on criminal-minded elements in Kayihura’s circles (Museveni called them Kawukumi) and largely blamed many of Kampala’s security failures (he still does) on Kigali. He always referred to President Museveni with respect & courtesy. He always sought to present him as an ally in the broader war against Kayihura’s Kawukumi-infested police force. On the other TVO, and his followers, was clearly different. His reporting portrays Museveni as the problem unlike Seruga who demonizes Kigali at every opportunity. Reluctance to fault Museveni (him being the king maker who puts the likes of Kayihura in office and tolerated him for all these years) naturally discomforted some of the extremist followers that Seruga Titus was sharing with TVO-and to many, it was always a matter of time before the two facebook icons would clash.
TITANIC CLASH;
Indeed they have clashed head on already and it all started this very week when Seruga Titus looked back to all the stories he correctly predicted and have come to pass in just months. Firing off what turned out to be the first bullet, Seruga Titus directed veiled barbs at TVO on Wednesday 13th June. At exactly 8.27am, he posted on his facebook wall (Seruga Titus) as follows: “They thought I was lying then and they still compare me with that CAPITAL LETTER Guy.” This clearly was in reference to TVO who always types and posts his stuff in capital letters. The justifiably-bragging Seruga was referring to his earlier 14th March story that President Museveni (he mostly calls him General Museveni) had okayed Kayihura future prosecution in the Court Martial. This, not very surprisingly, sparked anger from TVOs fanatical supporters who started claiming this was proof, as they always feared, that the Seruga Titus account had been created by Museveni’s intelligence agencies to chiefly achieve two things: justify the impending crack down on Gen Kayihura in the short term and use Seruga Titus to gradually demystify and neutralize TVO in the long term. As if they are succeeding, assuming this suspicion were true, many of face bookers previously renowned for their TVO fanaticism can these days be seen proudly posting “I’m team Seruga Titus” ostensibly to protest the apparent decline in the frequency and intensity with which TVO used to post stuff.
RWOMUSHANA WEIGHS IN;
Charles Rwomushana, another very outspoken face book personality, spoke to this news website regarding this TVO/Seruga saga. Renowned for his insightful analysis and intelligence background, Rwomushana says Ugandans should treat both Seruga Titus and TVO with equal disdain. They are both mysterious characters which means they are unsure of what they post and have no credibility or name to protect in case what they post turns out false, he says. Rwomushana says he considers what he posts as risky as anything posted by TVO or Seruga “but I always own it and I’m a known person who can be held to account for what I have posted.” He says the fact that the duo chose to remain anonymous is proof that Ugandans can only trust what the duo post at their own peril. He says it’s very possible the Museveni intelligence apparatus, to which he belonged for many years, can use an account like Seruga Titus to achieve its selfish ends “just like the FDC Besigye group uses TVO to fight their wars.” He adds the two political adversary groups can use both TVO and Seruga Titus to overshadow more credible self-professed critics like himself so that Ugandans don’t pay adequate attention to what they post or say. Rwomushana says it’s most likely that the real entities behind the two mystery accounts (namely TVO and Seruga Titus) are organizations as opposed to merely being individuals. Rwomushana says because what he posts is always factual and well researched, he has taken bigger risks to his own life than either TVO or Seruga Titus can ever take. “They are clearly being used to injure the innocent. They are just information gangsters. You see TVO is blaming Abiriga murder on the President’s staff, people no one can believe they have means to do such. That shows political motive to demonize the government side. On the other Seruga Titus brings in the PRA and Capt Katabazi angle in order to get at Besigye. As for me I see some bit of stupidity between the two [Seruga and TVO]. If you aren’t just a propaganda machine for these two groups [NRM & FDC] and some individuals, why do you hide? Why operate anonymously? Ugandans shouldn’t be duped because these two guys whoever is behind those face book accounts is useless and doesn’t mean well for the country,” he says. Rwomushana admits that people behind popular information outlets like these two are prone to being taken advantage of by sources that might deliberately leak to them false information “to implicate the innocent but that isn’t reason enough to justify their decision to operate anonymously because we are all operating in this same space and must always take risks because this is our country.”
TVO FIGHTS BACK;
Not one to take a punch without fighting back, TVO has also been fighting back claiming that Seruga Titus is an individual who works for ESO and vows to expose him. In one of his anti-Seruga missives, TVO posted as follows: “TVO spies on regime and posts all evil that the regime does. The ESO guy [implying Seruga] spies for the regime and gives him selective Intel to post.” Seruga Titus’ would-be response went as follows: “Do you want to know the truth about Seruga Titus? I will only come out if my readers vote yes in the next one hour. This is not response to Mr. Capital letters [meaning TVO] but I just want my readers to have a say in case they want to know the person behind this [FB] account.” Reacting to hundreds of comments, Seruga Titus (who always keeps his word when he promises to post something), returned with what he said was a brief version of his profile. He confesses being a Muganda born to Kate Nanfuka Mpanga (deceased) and Solomon Seruga of Ngabi clan. He then runs through his media working career which at some point saw him work with MTN Uganda. He also says he is the proprietor behind a company called Bazaar Ltd. As for his political affiliation, Seruga says he is independent-minded. He says he lives in Brussels, strongly supports Arsenal and manages a Ugandan soccer team in Belgium. He says he is a human rights activist who works with a team of lawyers and friends. He says he gets credible information because his sources trust the fact that he will post information as it is without trading it for money. He says he has capabilities to further investigate and verify every story gotten from his sources using IT capabilities he learnt while working at MTN Uganda. That he started blogging after being disappointed seeing people trivially using facebook for only posting and sharing selfies. He says he resents crime and impunity. Seruga says he manages to circumvent harassment by the Ugandan state because “my website theinformant.news is registered in Belgium…therefore only Belgium laws apply and they protect freedom of speech and expression.” Seruga asks those wanting to know more to speak to his OBs and OGs but unfortunately doesn’t disclose the schools he went to. He discloses that he was born on 1st August 1978 but remains tight-lipped about his family background saying this is important for security reasons. The two online activists also differ on what could have caused Abiriga’s death. Whereas TVO, who is now being dismissed by Seruga’s fans as “fake news” is apportioning blame on Ugandan officials, Seruga’s alternative narrative is blaming Kigali. For comments, email us on mulengeranews@gmail.com
