By Mulengera Reporters
On Tuesday 23rd December, the UCC Executive Director Hon GW Nyombi Thembo posted on his X about the private meeting he had had with close family members of jailed journalist and online broadcaster Dean Lubowa Saava.
It emerged that, besides listening to them plead for their breadwinner and also sharing on the inevitable deprivation they have endured in his absence since his arrest in September, Nyombi Thembo also materially supported the family with a decent Christmas package to enable them go through the festive season of this year 2025.
Nyombi Thembo’s goodwill gesture took many by surprise as it was unexpected because he personally is one of the victims who endured online demonization by Saava through his controversial broadcasts that were relayed via his TV10 Gano Mazima channel on both YouTube and Tik Tok.
Yet that wasn’t all. The offences relating to illegal broadcasting and operating online TV without having the license by the mandated UCC, that he is charged with, are all being prosecuted by the same Nyombi Thembo-led Commission at the Makindye-based Utilities, Standards & Wildlife Court before Chief Magistrate Gladys Kamasanyu.
There are other offences Saava is faced with in other Courts where he is being prosecuted by a team of seasoned prosecutors from the Office of Director Public Prosecutions who are led by chief prosecutor Richard Birivumbuka. So, given that background not many expected Nyombi Thembo to act this compassionately towards Saava’s family.
This explains why indeed his X post showing pictures of him seated with Saava’s close family members to have a discussion inside one of UCC’s Board Rooms at the Bugolobi head offices, attracted mixed reactions.
Whereas a few X users, led by lawyer Male Mabirizi, demonstrated their negativity while referencing to the Constitutional provisions and the Supreme Court decision in the Onyango-Obbo/Andrew Mwenda locus classicus case and concluding that Saava is innocent under free speech provisions, majority online commentators celebrated the courtesy, compassion and prudence with which Nyombi Thembo acted.
Outspoken Born-Again pastor Martin Ssempa was among the first ones to comment. He thanked Nyombi Thembo for overlooking the personal attacks Saava used to direct at him and thanked the UCC boss for the largeness of the heart that his Olive branch gesture demonstrated.
Journalist Ndugu Stanley Ndawula (the Investigator) equally thanked the UCC ED for his humility and humanity. Ndawula certainly knows better than anyone else how complicated Dean Lubowa Saava’s case is.
He personally has been making relentless efforts to stand with Saava, his professional personal friend of more than 10 years, and to also see that he gets all the support he requires including securing for him access to appropriate legal representation.
Via his Investigator online TV channel, Ndawula has also been advocating de-escalation, making it clear that engagement is the only way Dean Lubowa Saava’s unenviable predicament is going to ever come to an end. So, Ndawula’s public praise of the Olive branch approach the UCC ED Nyombi Thembo engaged on 23rd is therefore not hard to understand.
Serwadda Joseph (not the Ndeeba pastor) said the 23rd gesture was consistent with the gentle decent Nyombi Thembo he has closely known since 2008, when he first met and got to know him during an engagement at a place called Namigavu.
Kyagulanyi Kabanda, an outspoken critic of the Ugandan regime, advised that the criminal justice system considers releasing Saava on bail as per his earlier application for the same.
In November, Her Worship Kamasanyu declined releasing him on bail on grounds that the sureties Saava presented weren’t substantial enough. The Magistrate also expressed concerns about his place of abode which was disclosed to be Lungujja where the accused person lives and operates from but in rented premises.
Even Nyombi Thembo, in his post paraphrasing some of the things he had discussed with the family during their closed meeting of the previous day, unequivocally stated that Saava’s issue, regarding how and when he walks to freedom, rests with the Courts and the entire criminal justice system, to which Kyagulanyi Kabanda seemed to direct his comment too.
Another X user, Abraham Muhumuza, said the 23rd gesture demonstrated Nyombi Thembo’s humanity and that his kindness qualified him to be bestowed the title of “Father of the Pearl” for the Christmas season. Iga Edward Lule went radical asserting that Saava deserves jail because he went too far in his verbal attacks on people.
He said that he was sorry for the innocent family members but implored them to painfully accept that their breadwinner had become “a public nuisance.” Orach Glen Noel agreed the gesture illustrated Nyombi Thembo’s humanity.
Lutalo Mike appreciated the UCC ED for reaching out to support the family through the Christmas season but implored Hon Nyombi Thembo to leverage his powerful office and do more to help expedite Dean Lubowa Saava’s release on at least bail so that he begins attending Court coming from home.
Uncle Sue, another X user, wondered why such good people, possessed with such kind-heartedness like Nyombi Thembo, are these days rare in the Ugandan government. ManUtdGuy agreed and demanded that other big people in government emulate Nyombi Thembo. God’s Plan said that what Nyombi Thembo had done is what they call UBUNTU, which he observed is very rare in today’s Uganda.
Nyombi Thembo’s post was viewed and engaged with widely by Ugandans on social media because in its 24 hours, it had attracted 47.2k views, 331 likes, 55 retweets and over 80 comments. Of the 80 comments, including that of Male Mabirizi which was overtly critical, 47 were positive; implying that the good will gesture by the UCC top boss was long overdue. (For comments on this story, get back to us on 0705579994 [WhatsApp line], 0779411734 & 041 4674611 or email us at mulengeranews@gmail.com).
