The Director General of Uganda Investment Authority (UIA), Mr Robert Mukiza, has condemned a group of individuals whom he said are fabricating and spreading fake news to negatively influence public opinion against the government agency, its leaders and its projects.
Mr Mukiza’s response comes in the wake of a sustained negative media campaign against the UIA and the Kampala Industrial and Business Park Development project, which aims to upgrade Namanve into a state-of-the-art infrastructure facility.
Numerous whistle-blower complaints about the project have been sent to the Attorney General, the IGG, the Public Procurement and Disposal of Public Assets Authority( PPDA), Parliament and the President, prompting investigations.
However, the reports have always indicated that there is no cause for alarm.
Last weekend, the claims that UIA had mismanaged the development of Namanve Industrial Park were published by some Kenyan registered online outlets, with individuals from the Finance Ministry, the British High Commissioner’s office to Uganda, the employers’ representative and the Attorney General all named.
But in a telephone interview, Mr Mukiza asserted that there is nothing that is being said or written about the Namanve project regarding mismanagement that is true or accurate. He indicates that the orchestrators are people who are determined to see him fail by all means by discrediting the institution he heads.
“I know who these people are and their devilish motives. It has always been a group of three but recently, another renegade joined them, so they are now four. They have turned the fight against me into a full-time job,” he said.
“I already know how these fake stories are fabricated; who suggests which scandalising story about me enough to attract public interest should be written, I know who eventually types the stories, I know who approves them, I know how they are sent to online outlets and I also know who contributes money to pay these websites to ensure that they are posted on different platforms to achieve the desired impact,” he added.
Mr Mukiza further explained that the group has exhausted falsehoods about him and there is nothing left to write the reason they have now focused their guns on the new innocent victims, including individuals from the Ministry of Finance, the Attorney General’s office and the British High Commissioner to Uganda.
“These blackmailers know that these people are very innocent but they keep dragging them in their doctored news in order to keep the bad stories about me and the institution fresh, exciting and relevant to the public,” he said.
Mr Mukiza expressed gratitude to Ugandan registered online news that have found out that stories about UIA and Namanve project are all fake and misleading and therefore not newsworthy and refused to publish them.
“Journalists in Uganda by now know that 100 percent of the negative news about UIA, its staff and projects are extremely biased and fake and I’m happy that they are no longer giving them attention as they used to; the reason why these evil people have run to Kenya to use the websites there,” he said.
“I have also heard that they have created anonymous websites in Kishasha, primarily to publish fake news about UIA and me But they are extremely dense , crafty and myopic. If they are genuine in what they say , why then run to run 700kms to Nairobi or 3,000kms to Kinshasa to publish a story there moreover on a website that was created a few minutes before the story was published?” he said.
“Why can’t they submit the so-called evidence to the relevant investigative institutions in Uganda so that I disapprove of them? They very well know that at UIA we operate by the book and there is nothing they are alleging that I can’t explain with evidence. That’s why they must hide behind anonymous websites that are based outside Uganda to publish their fake stories,” he added.
Mr Mukiza appealed to the public to treat the stories generated by his enemies with the contempt they deserve as they are not produced by journalists but rather individuals with biased opinions.
“Those you see trending aren’t stories but rather individual opinions of my enemies. They are the ones who draft, type, edit and send them to the publications, so nobody should take them seriously,” he said.
“There is no problem whatsoever with the Institution called UIA that I lead or the projects under it’s mandate. We are busy fulfilling our mandate of ensuring that we attract more investors as we keep the ones we already have happy and satisfied,” Mukiza added.
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