By Mulengera Reporters
Josephat Seguya and Richard Kayira Ssalongo are two very powerful guys in Vision Group-and more so Bukedde newspaper and TV. Whereas very cautious Seguya is excellent when it comes to gossiping about big-name citizens via the Ekyenkya program, Kayira powerfully serves as news editor for Bukedde newspaper. That is no mean feat given that Bukedde is officially Uganda’s most selling newspaper going by the latest survey reports by the SA-based Audit Bureau of Circulation (ABC).
The two powerful youngmen have lots of very interesting secrets including being close relatives. Though it’s something they initially concealed, they are maternally related. They have religiously worked for their media house and reaped a lot in return including Kayira often being prized as the Vision Group employee of the year. And why not; they have also made money and a lot of it. This naturally is expected because of the clout they have in Vision Group empire.
Not only are they related but they seemingly have a meeting of minds; what Josephat likes will instantly interest Richard. For instance, they both stay in the Bulenga neighborhood along Mityana Road. Seguya, who is very shrewd when it comes to having a nose for the good deals, was the first to settle there and later persuaded Kayira to follow suit. The two cousin brothers are also very strategic in that when CEO Robert Kabushenga voted to diversify into electronic media they agreed on how to strategically position themselves. Seguya went deep into showbiz reporting for the TV as Kayira sought to consolidate in the Bukedde newspaper gradually growing into a news editor. Kayira accepted additional responsibility of being news anchor as that meant deepening his influence, visibility and also earning more remuneration from the Group. Seguya equally kept one leg in the Bukedde newspaper as he deepened his influence on TV.
The two brothers are very innovative and strategic as seen in the ease with which they convinced the family to allow their younger brother Paddy Bukenya to join Bukedde newspaper as the Mpigi stringer to fill the vacuum that was created when area reporter Ben Sentongo cracked and got thrown out of the Vision Group empire by the very uncompromising CEO Robert Kabushenga who considered his deeds totally abominable. Bukenya, who initially grumbled that the two big brothers weren’t being adequately supportive, is finally a very happy man. The Kamengo-based stringer is envied by many fellow reporters at the headquarters for leveraging on the fact that his brother is news editor to run more stories and pictures than them. Being a freelance journalist, payable per story, running more stories makes a lot of business sense because it simply means fatter pay cheque at the end of the month.
The two brothers are also very strategic and extremely protective of their material accomplishments. They like ensuring no 3rd party persons ever get to know what they have earned and accomplished in the year. Strategic in a sense that especially Kayira realizes he can leverage on his influential position as editor to do sales and bring good deals for the Company and earn fatty commissions in return. That’s how public-spirited Kayira (having a heart for the destitute, voiceless and powerless) sometime back pondered the idea of exposing graft in government social service delivery institutions like NIRA, Police, Judiciary etc. He originated a very good proposal which CEO Robert Kabushenga supported him to successfully market to DGF which parted with Shs1.3bn for the start as sponsorship for the ongoing campaign to legally empower citizens about their legal rights but also to expose corrupt inefficient public institutions. The clean-up exercise hasn’t only brought in good money for the Company but has also won kudos from public officials including the Speaker of Parliament Rebecca Kadaga and Chief Justice Bart Katurebe. Thanks to Kayira, the idea he conceived has turned into a win-win situation for the citizens, his employer and the heads of institutions like Bart Katurebe who has since been prompted to investigate corruption the public has been reporting through Vision Group-DGF-enabled barazas.
So, on getting his Shs250m commission off the DGF deal, Kayira (on the prompting of Seguya) opted to buy huge chunks of land in Mityana for commercial farming. Using their journalistic contacts, the two excellent scribes identified the land and reached agreement with the family that was selling. But on the day, they drove there to make payment and sign transfer forms, something very unfortunate happened. As Mulengera News reported in June, they carried the cash in Kayira’s car boot but by the time they were done moving around the land to secure the concurrence of all family members regarding the boundaries, they returned to a vandalized vehicle from which the Shs250m had been stolen by local Mityana village thieves.
As you can imagine, it was the worst day for the two brothers. They cried, wept and wailed until they couldn’t cry anymore and good Samaritans had to help drive them back to Kampala. They were too distraught and didn’t know what to do next until a female workmate who reports the crime bit offered to link them up with excellent police investigators to chase after the thugs that have never been apprehended up to this day. And this being Uganda, its very likely the money will never be recovered.
KAYIRA’S BRILLIAN
Kayira is called Ssalongo because he fathers twins with his Rwandese dear wife Brillian Kayira who recently relocated to live in the US where she has since joined PP. She wanted him to resign, over the Shs250m debacle, and relocate to the US too but Kayira declined saying the VG job is too lucrative for a young man of his age to just run away from. Brillian became disgruntled and travelled on her own to the US where she is busy making new female and male friends as part of the process to overcome stress relating to leaving her dear Ssalongo back home in Kampala. He met her in the course of his journalistic duties and of course she had had earlier relationships like any other adult human being. Besides the 4-year-old twins, they have one other child who is their first born. It’s being speculated that Brillian, who has lately not been very enthusiastic towards Ssalongo for refusing to relocate, might not be intending to ever return to Uganda. This increases the possibility of Kayira losing her or accepting to endure the pains that come with being in a long-distance relationship.
Despite being a prolific Luganda communicator (writer and broadcaster), Seguya (who hails from Gomba) one time suffered painful jokes by office colleagues when his father visited the VG headquarters and struggled to communicate in Luganda. At some point, the jokes became too much prompting Seguya to refer the matter to the Group HR who subjected the offending colleague to some disciplinary proceedings. All said and done, the two brothers are envied by workmates for many things including their irrevocable realization that as brothers “we can only be stronger together” as opposed to being at loggerheads. For the uninitiated, Bukedde is one work place where there is plenty of intrigue because the positions tend to be extremely juicy implying the two brothers can only win by having plenty of solidarity between them to circumvent their internal ill-wishers who naturally aren’t few. (For comments, call/text us on 0200900416 or email us at mulengera2040@gmail.com).