US Senator Jim Risch has demanded a review of Washington’s security ties with Uganda after Military Chief Gen Muhoozi Kainerugaba closed three media outlets.
In a tweet, Senator Risch wrote, “The US needs to review its security relationship with Uganda. Gen. Muhoozi’s attacks on free speech, including shuttering major media houses this weekend, make him and the UPDF unfit partners. We should only work with those who advance regional security, not diminish it.”
Uganda’s military chief, who is also the president’s son, on Sunday ordered the closure of two leading media outlets, NTV Uganda and Daily Monitor.
In his tweets Muhoozi said he did “not believe in a free press”.
Muhoozi, President Yoweri Museveni’s son, said the Daily Monitor – Uganda’s largest independent daily newspaper – and NTV Uganda, one of the country’s largest private broadcasters, would “not re-open without my permission”.
He did not give specific reasons for closing the media outlets, both of which are owned by Nation Media Group (NMG), a media conglomerate headquartered in Kenya and listed on the Nairobi stock exchange.
The Daily Monitor reported on Sunday that military personnel had been deployed at NMG’s premises in the capital, Kampala, and that staff were being prevented from leaving or entering the premises.
NTV Uganda and other NMG TV and radio broadcasters in the country were all down as of Sunday morning.
Ugandan government spokesperson Alan Kasujja did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.
