The fall of anti-corruption crusader, self-made journalist
Apr 08, 2009
TEDDY Seezi Cheeye, the man who spent his publishing career exposing government corruption, will serve 10 years in jail.
By Arthur Baguma
TEDDY Seezi Cheeye, the man who spent his publishing career exposing government corruption, will serve 10 years in jail.
A ruling by the head of the Anti-Corruption Court, Justice John Bosco Katutsi, yesterday put an end to this career or sorts.
Cheeye was charged and convicted for embezzling of the Global Fund.
Cheeye joined the Internal Security Organisation (ISO) in 2002 as the director of economic affairs. He was responsible for intelligence on the country’s economic and financial performance.
He founded the Uganda Centre for Accountability, a non-governmental organisation, where he was the managing director.
It is here that his latest trouble stems after he failed to account for sh120m paid to the NGO to supervise the Global Fund activities in Ntungamo, Rakai, Kabale and Mbarara districts.
So, instead of going down in history as a fearless publisher, the conviction could render him a case study of corruption in the law books.
Cheeye made both admirers and enemies in his articles that were published in the defunct weekly, Uganda Confidential. Among his prominent pieces was the article he wrote about business mogul Gordon Wavamuno in 1999.
Wavamuno dragged him to court for libel, claiming damages over a story “The Dare-devil Does the Cheating of the Country Wavamuno Steals sh200m for Museveni’s Caravanâ€.
Another of his damning pieces was about former ethics and integrity minister Miria Matembe, who dragged him to court and won the suit. He was ordered to pay sh22m, which he failed to. Cheeye’s property was seized by Matembe’s lawyers.
The Uganda Confidential folded a couple of years ago, partly over the suits.
James Tumusime of Fountain Publishers, a founder member of The New Vision, recalls that Cheeye worked for the paper in its initial years as a correspondent and opinion writer.
Cheeye later joined a political training school in Entebbe.
He was briefly involved in business, importing and selling Kenyan news papers before he started the Uganda Confidentiall, Tumusiime says.
Cheeye did a diploma in journalism in Nairobi at the Christian Journalism School in the early 1980s.
Wafula Oguttu, a veteran journalist and founder member of The Daily Monitor, said he met Cheeye in 1989. Cheeye worked with the army publication, Tarehe Sita.
Oguttu says Cheeye was, perhaps, one of the founders of the magazine. He would later be transferred to the information ministry as a cadre.
Together with Oguttu and Charles Onyango Obbo, they started the Uganda Confidential.
“The Uganda Confidential
was his idea, but we helped him to edit it,†Oguttu disclosed.
Cheeye later participated in the establishment of The Monitor newspaper. He is married to Annet and they have three children.
Between 1995 and 2002, Cheeye was a regular court client.
Yesterday, he went to court again and was told by a venerable judge that he would, by law, not return to his house for 10 years.
He was given a new address—Luzira Prison.
Chronology of events
It started when a whistle blower alerted the Global Fund that all was not well in the management of the fund meant for HIV/AIDS, TB and malaria in Uganda.
The fund contracted PricewaterhouseCoopers to investigate the allegations
The auditors made a report cataloguing unaccounted for disbursements to implementing agencies.
Geneva suspended the fund to Uganda.
President Yoweri Museveni to set up a commission of inquiry headed by Justice James Ogoola into the allegations.
The Government froze the Global Fund accounts in Stanbic and dfcu banks until investigations were over. This was lifted in October after the Government agreed to conditions by the Global Fund headquarters.
The Ogoola team started work in 2005.
A number of implementing agencies, individuals and health ministers Jim Muhwezi, Mike Mukula and Alex Kamugisha were quizzed.
Cheeye and others were implicated in the misuse of the funds.
Ogoola recommended that the Criminal Investigations Directorate investigates the issue further so as to prosecuting the culprits.
Police and the DPP investigated and took a number of people to court, including Cheeye.
Investigations on the ministers are still going on.
The Government set up the Anti-Corruption Court as a division of the High Court.
The first suspect, Journalist Fred Kavuma, was recently sentenced to five years imprisonment for embezzling sh41m
Cheeye is the second to be convicted in the court headed by Justice J.B. Katutsi.
Compiled by Anne Mugisa, Hillary Nsambu, Adward Anyoli and Brian Mayanja
TEDDY Seezi Cheeye, the man who spent his publishing career exposing government corruption, will serve 10 years in jail.
A ruling by the head of the Anti-Corruption Court, Justice John Bosco Katutsi, yesterday put an end to this career or sorts.
Cheeye was charged and convicted for embezzling of the Global Fund.
Cheeye joined the Internal Security Organisation (ISO) in 2002 as the director of economic affairs. He was responsible for intelligence on the country’s economic and financial performance.
He founded the Uganda Centre for Accountability, a non-governmental organisation, where he was the managing director.
It is here that his latest trouble stems after he failed to account for sh120m paid to the NGO to supervise the Global Fund activities in Ntungamo, Rakai, Kabale and Mbarara districts.
So, instead of going down in history as a fearless publisher, the conviction could render him a case study of corruption in the law books.
Cheeye made both admirers and enemies in his articles that were published in the defunct weekly, Uganda Confidential. Among his prominent pieces was the article he wrote about business mogul Gordon Wavamuno in 1999.
Wavamuno dragged him to court for libel, claiming damages over a story “The Dare-devil Does the Cheating of the Country Wavamuno Steals sh200m for Museveni’s Caravanâ€.
Another of his damning pieces was about former ethics and integrity minister Miria Matembe, who dragged him to court and won the suit. He was ordered to pay sh22m, which he failed to. Cheeye’s property was seized by Matembe’s lawyers.
The Uganda Confidential folded a couple of years ago, partly over the suits.
James Tumusime of Fountain Publishers, a founder member of The New Vision, recalls that Cheeye worked for the paper in its initial years as a correspondent and opinion writer.
Cheeye later joined a political training school in Entebbe.
He was briefly involved in business, importing and selling Kenyan news papers before he started the Uganda Confidentiall, Tumusiime says.
Cheeye did a diploma in journalism in Nairobi at the Christian Journalism School in the early 1980s.
Wafula Oguttu, a veteran journalist and founder member of The Daily Monitor, said he met Cheeye in 1989. Cheeye worked with the army publication, Tarehe Sita.
Oguttu says Cheeye was, perhaps, one of the founders of the magazine. He would later be transferred to the information ministry as a cadre.
Together with Oguttu and Charles Onyango Obbo, they started the Uganda Confidential.
“The Uganda Confidential
was his idea, but we helped him to edit it,†Oguttu disclosed.
Cheeye later participated in the establishment of The Monitor newspaper. He is married to Annet and they have three children.
Between 1995 and 2002, Cheeye was a regular court client.
Yesterday, he went to court again and was told by a venerable judge that he would, by law, not return to his house for 10 years.
He was given a new address—Luzira Prison.
Chronology of events
The first suspect, Journalist Fred Kavuma, was recently sentenced to five years imprisonment for embezzling sh41m
Compiled by Anne Mugisa, Hillary Nsambu, Adward Anyoli and Brian Mayanja