By Our Reporters
UCC Executive Director Godfrey Mutabazi has furiously responded to claims by Makerere law don and influential city lawyer Robert Kirunda that the MTN public hearing was unlikely to take place because UCC and government are working hard to shield the South African giant telecom against public scrutiny. While appearing on Capital Gang for the debate on the performance of regulatory authorities (prompted by NDA ineptness as seen in fake Hepatitis B medicines being used on children), Kirunda said it was a bigger a problem and not only NDA was being affected. He said, hiding under the guise of job creation and other benefits, many powerful officials in government and UCC were determined to make sure MTN gets its license renewed without having to face the public to answer hard questions. He was supported by Mubs economics professor Ramadhan Goobi who said he wouldn’t be surprised if Kirunda’s remarks against UCC turned out to be true. They both submitted that some UCC bosses, like is the case with other regulators, are incapacitated to crack the whip hard because they themselves have financial interest in the very telecom industry that they regulate.
KIRUNDA IS JUST A FOOL-UCC
This news website rang Mutabazi to get his views on the Kirunda utterances and the man from Kamwenge took no prisoners in his furious response. “Who is that man called Robert Kirunda? Who does he work as in this country? He is very stupid, very ignorant and I think he must be a light weight. Otherwise how could he say such a thing on the capital gang when the public notice advertising the MTN public hearing has already been published in the New Vision and other media? It’s on 26th March at our head offices and let him come if he is man enough. We are ready for him and we shall show the world how ignorant some of these so-called University professors are. How many jobs has he created? Doesn’t he know how many job opportunities MTN has created for Ugandans? Let him come we shall give him a chance to expose his ignorance. It would be interesting to hear what he exactly has against MTN,” said Mutabazi sounding unusually angry.
Kirunda claimed he had credible sources within the telecom industry and within UCC who had tipped him about the impending conspiracy to let MTN off the hook. But Mutabazi said: “I now know why these Universities are having endless problems. Let him be informed that I have said he is ignorant but let him come on March 26th and we shall put him to shame.” Mutabazi added that they have planned a hall with capacity to sit slightly over 200 people adding that Kirunda should make sure he is among those coming to raise their questions showing cause why MTN doesn’t deserve license renewal. “To be frank with you I haven’t heard about that one. But I have heard about Ramadhan but he doesn’t come off as serious guy. They are all light weight and I really don’t know what has happened to our Universities. How can a whole lecturer make such accusation against UCC when we clearly put out a message already calling for the meeting? By the way if he is a lawyer as you say and doesn’t trust UCC to act properly, he can take MTN to court. He doesn’t have to get his remedy from UCC. I hope he isn’t being hired by MTN competitors to speak those things on radio.” He added that such maliciously uninformed University dons have no business being allocated airtime to speak on prime talk shows like the Capital Gang ably hosted by Oscar Semweya Musoke. For comments, call/text/whatsapp us on 0703164755!
