Exclusively speaking to this website, maverick city lawyer Kassim Male Mabirizi has threatened to institute both civil and criminals cases against the person of Nyombi Thembo the Chief Executive Officer of the Uganda Communication Commission(UCC) for abuse of his public office and violating the rights of Ugandans.
Mabirizi revealed that his decision to sue Nyombi in his personal capacity stems from the response he made to him explaining why he suspended some songs from Yasin Mukasa commonly known as Lil Pazo and Gereson Wabuyi whose stage name is Gravity Omutujju from being played by all broadcasting media outlets.
Mabirizi insists that Nyombi lacks the legal mandate to execute the directives he made against the singer’s songs which include; Enkudi, Doze, Okwepicha and Omunio.
Mabirizi maintains that the decision violated the singer’s rights for employment amd expression which is well stipulated in the country’s Human Rights Enforcement Act.
However, in his letter dated 24th February, 2025, Nyombi was surprised with Mabirizi’s complaint against the decision his Commission took against the errant musicians noting that the entire public welcomed the decision and as a servant of Ugandans, he invited Mabirizi for an engagement meeting over the matter on Tuesday 04th March 2025 at the Commission’s headquarters at Bugolobi a Kampala suburbs.
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Nyombi insists that they didn’t violate the singer’s rights arguing that even the Uganda National Culture Centre, a body which supervises the music industry summoned the musicians for a hearing of their case before their decision was taken but they declined to appear.
“In accordance with its statutory mandate to coordinate and collaborate with other relevant notional organisations on matters relating to communications in Uganda under section 5(1)(h) of the Act, on the 12th day of December 2024, the commission dully issued a directive to all broadcasters in Uganda to suspend the broadcasting of the subjected songs on their regulated platforms, as had been resolved at the multi stakeholders meeting of 9th December, 2024,” Nyombi explained in the letter.
Before UCC took action against the singers, several opinion leaders including the Katikkiro of Buganda Charles Peter Mayiga raised their complaints against the suspended songs noting that the singers were using vulgar language.
Mayiga even banned the songs from being played by the Kingdom media houses.
The affected musicians insist that those who have lodged complaints against their songs misunderstood the meaning of the language and words they used.
