Cheeye Joins ISO

By Felix OsikeTEDDY Seezi Cheeye, the Editor-in-Chief of the Uganda Confidential newsletter, has joined the Internal Security Organisation (ISO), a spy body of the Government.Sources said President Yoweri Museveni recently appointed Cheeye a Director in the Economic Intelligence Unit of ISO. Sources told The New Vision that Cheeye reported to his office at ISO offices at Nakasero two days ago. Cheeye yesterday confirmed joining ISO but declined to give his job description. “I am not denying that I am in ISO. I am in ISO. I have just started my work. This is my first day in office, so I can’t tell you anything more. Talk to my boss, Brig. Henry Tumukunde,” he said. Tumukunde was not available for comment. Since founding his newsletter, Cheeye has mainly written about the economy and corruption.Col. Elly Kayanja, the ISO deputy Director General, said, “He is not in my office. I saw him two days ago.” Kayanja said the Economic Intelligence unit monitors and gathers intelligence reports on the national economy, economic activities of ministries and departments. Cheeye has been allocated a pick-up truck and two armed guards. On Tuesday night, he met the President at State House, Nakasero.He is the third journalist in the recent past to be appointed to a senior position in government after Ofwono Opondo became the Movement Director of Information and Onapito Ekomoloit became the President’s deputy Press Secretary.Through his paper, Cheeye has attacked nearly all influential politicians and business personalities in the country, including the president and the first lady, Janet Museveni. He implicated the first lady in a murder case but she forgave him, saying she was a christian.He has also had several running court battles on cases ranging from sedition, defamation to sexual assault.In one of the cases, Cheeye was charged with kidnapping Mrs. Zainabu Puwatta in Muyenga on January 21, 1996 with intent to subject her to grievous harm or unnatural lust. The High Court however acquitted him in 1997, amid protest from the state.In a more recent case, a prostitute jumped through the window of Cheeye’s offices at Blacklines House, claiming that Cheeye had tried to push a piece of wood into her private parts. The case is still pending. Cheeye fled to Nairobi during the regime of former president Milton Obote in the early 80’s and closely worked with the National Resistance Army/Movement (NRA/M) external wing. He was also a staff of the Resistance News, a publication of the NRA/M.When the NRA came to power in 1986, Cheeye returned to Uganda and worked briefly with The New Vision as a reporter before joining the Ministry of Information.He left the information ministry in 1997 to become a Movement mobiliser. He later went into private practice when he established his newsletter. He was also a shareholder in the Monitor newspaper.During the March 2001 presidential elections, he was highly critical of the opposition candidates, spelling out the numerous achievements of Museveni’s Movement government.Ends