Editorial Team/Staff Writers
What we know
On June 28, columnist Nicholas Sengoba wrote a post on X saying: “Atypically, @TimKalyegira’s phone number has been off since last night.” Like Timothy Kalyegira, Mr Sengoba writes a column for the Daily Monitor.
Atypically, @TimKalyegira's phone number has been off since last night.
— NICHOLAS SENGOBA (@nsengoba) June 28, 2026
We pray that all is well. https://t.co/n9jGXQ6lN9 pic.twitter.com/AExzYBgZ50
Mr Sengoba’s tweet was the first public indication that all was not well with Mr Kalyegira. The following day, the state arraigned Mr Kalyegira before Kira Chief Magistrate’s Court over charges of broadcasting without a licence contrary to the Uganda Communications Act. He denied thecharge and was remanded to Luzira Prison.
Mr Kalyegira, 58, is a resident of Kira Municipality in Wakiso District and has written for Daily Monitor since the mid-1990s. Mr Sengoba wrote about Mr Kalyegira hours after security forces had laid siege to the office of Daily Monitor in Namuwongo and forced the paper’s sister broadcasters—NTV, Spark TV, KFM, Ddembe FM—off air.
According to the charge sheet prepared by the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (ODPP), Mr Kalyegira operated two media platforms without obtaining the requisite broadcasting licence from the Uganda Communications Commission (UCC).
The first count alleges that between 2013 and 2026, Kalyegira broadcast content through Kampala Express without a licence issued by the communications regulator.
Although prosecutors described Kampala Express as a video production and media consulting platform, it is actually a Facebook page.
Under the second count, prosecution contends that Mr Kalyegira operated Uganda Records, an online publication platform, without the mandatory authorisation from the UCC. While the charge sheet refers to “Uganda Records”, the publication Mr Kalyegira ran was called the Uganda Record, and it ceased operations more than 15 years ago. The misspelling has raised questions about the accuracy of the charge.
What the government says
The charges are brought under Section 28(1) and (2) of the Uganda Communications Act, Cap 103, which requires broadcasters to obtain licences from the Uganda Communications Commission before providing broadcasting services.
What raises questions
The Uganda Record was an online publication founded in 2010 by Mr Kalyegira. It covered politics and public affairs and published contributions from several writers, including me. The website has been inactive for more than 15 years.
Kampala Express is a Facebook page on which Mr Kalyegira published mostly photos, although sometimes he posted videos. The page has been largely dormant for years.
The timing
Mr Kalyegira has remained one of the most outspoken critics of President Yoweri Museveni’s government and his son, Gen Muhoozi Kainerugaba, who heads the army. If one of the alleged offences concerns a website that has not operated for more than a decade, why was action taken now?
Mr Kalyegira’s prosecution comes amid broader concerns among journalists and rights groups about pressure on critical voices. Days before security forces laid siege on Nation Media Group-Uganda outlets, former Ethics and Integrity Minister Miria Matembe had been abducted. She was produced in court on June 30 and charged with promoting sectarianism.
WHO IS TIMOTHY KALYEGIRA
Mr Kalyegira studied political science at Makerere University. Although many Ugandans, including those who have employed him, call him a journalist, he does not call himself one. On his X account, he uses “AI researcher and video producer” to describe himself. Sometimes he has described himself as a photographer.
But many Ugandans know him for his writings, especially in the Monitor, where he has written a column since 2007. He started writing for the paper in the early 1990s.
An outspoken critic of President Museveni, his son and army chief Gen Muhoozi Kainerugaba, Mr Kalyegira has also launched several projects over the decades. In 1995, he founded the Uganda Almanac. In 2004, he started the Entebbe Report and, six years later, set up the website Uganda Record.
When terrorists attacked football fans at the FIFA World Cup 2010 in Kampala and killed scores, Mr Kalyegira published an article alleging that the state was responsible for those attacks. He was arrested, charged and briefly remanded.
In 2008, he travelled to China to cover the Olympics for the Daily Monitor under questionable circumstances, as his trip was financed by Michael Ezra, a self-styled Ugandan billionaire entrepreneur who was facing fraud allegations and who once, at a Kampala hotel, flaunted counterfeit wads of crisp 100-dollar bills before reporters in response to claims that he was broke.
Mr Kalyegira has also worked for radio stations in Kampala such as Sanyu FM and CBS, and used to write radio reviews for the Daily Monitor in the late 1990s. Many Ugandans who follow him are familiar with his trenchant criticism of Africans, whom he says are less intellectually gifted than white people.
He is married to an Eritrean woman and has one son and one daughter.
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