In the mid night hours of 28th June, 2026, the military operatives of Uganda people’s defense forces raided premises of the Daily Monitor newspaper publications on plot 29/35, 8th street industrial area at Namuwongo and NTV broadcasting station at Kampala Serena International conference center and forcibly closed the operations of the only bold independent media in Uganda, East Africa.
The Nation media group (NMG) through its official online platforms informed the world that the siege came on orders of Muhoozi Kainerugaba the military chief head of UPDF and first son to Uganda’s longest serving President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni who has been in power since 1986 to date.
The fresh military attack on National media group that owns Daily Monitor, NTV, Spark TV, Dembe Fm, East African paper and Business Daily is a direct irrational attack on a free independent media and press freedom in a country.
The siege has left a total number of 1,142 National media group employees’ jobless, living in fear, emotionally distressed and cyber stalked, yet the public has also been denied its right to know and participate which violates all the key tenets of democracy.
The siege has attracted public outrage and tainted a negative global image on Uganda which will affect its tourism sector, diplomatic ties and international trade.
Subsequently, the siege is soaring Uganda’s major diplomatic ties United States of America and United Kingdom;
For instance, US Senator Jim Risch the chairperson of senate on foreign relations committee stated via his official X account that “The US needs to review its security relationship with Uganda due Gen.Muhoozi’s attacks on free speech and independent media”;
While United Kingdom’s House of Foreign Affairs committee has equally cautioned the Ugandan government on the undemocratic tendencies of silencing the press and therefore demanded an immediate end of arbitrary detentions and attacks on Media.
Well, tensions between the Uganda government and Daily Monitor publications specifically have been boiling every now and then with the NRM regime accusing the media entity of threatening the country’s security, peace, freedom and political stability;
However, the Daily Monitor which is the leading newspaper publication in Uganda denies the accusations, stating that it’s only doing principled journalism that compels free media to foster accountability, transparency and justice for all.
This is not the first time the NRM government is raiding on independent media house;
Lest we forget, in 2013 the state temporarily shut down the Daily monitor and NTV for publishing a leaked security dossier exposing the controversial “Muhoozi Succession Project” and previously did the same in 2006 and 2002 over other matters.
Fast forward to 2026, what Daily Monitor was shut down for in 2013, I mean the “Muhoozi project” has now fully materialised into the Patriotic league of Uganda (PLU) a political vigilante group that is openly pushing for Muhoozi hereditary Presidency (similar to what is in North Korea) sadly the subject himself has now commanded and bestowed over the closure of the only independent bold media house.
On one side of the coin, Daily Monitor and NTV have been positively reporting about government service delivery, ceremonies, NRM party activities, diplomatic ties, poverty alleviation programs, tourism destinations, economic growth and all kind of achievements of the NRM government under the leadership of Yoweri Museveni.
On the other side of the coin, Daily Monitor like any other bold independent media publication has equally reported on wastage of tax payer’s money, poor roads and healthcare facilities, constitutional erosion, corruption scandals, election mal practices, human rights violations, gloss inequalities, impunity and backsliding democracy which in most cases outshines the achievements of the NRM regime.
Without fear of contradiction, indeed Daily Monitor and NTV have done their very best to put power to account which most times irritates the kleptocratic and totalitarian status quo in Uganda.
However, the latest siege has been ignited by the January 2026 elections, rampant abductions and arbitrary arrests and torture of dissenting citizens like the immediate former Kampala Lord Mayor Erias Lukwago, Miria Matembe and Andrew Natumanya among others.
In their heart of hearts the Museveni regime prefers that all media houses must ‘report abductions has arrests’ or ignore the incidents as it is done by the official national broadcaster and publications, something that the Daily Monitor and NTV find compromising and contradictory to the values, ethics and principles of journalism.
Imagine if you are a professional journalist, can you report that an unidentifiable security operatives using disproportional force arrested Erias Lukwago or Miria Matembe to an illegal detention basement for more than 48 hours? Well knowing they were either kidnaped or an abducted, such is the predicament journalists in Uganda find themselves in.
Sadly, most of these abduction and torture victims return in the public cameras with terrible physical injuries, trauma and emotional scars (case in point Edward Ssebuffu aka Eddy Mutwe) really! Do you expect a professional journalist of a sound conscience and integrity to report contrary to what the public sees!
Chickens come to roast, when the regime expects independent media to sanitise its atrocities and gloss human rights violations that denigrate human dignity, yes. While some media houses have succumbed to the whims of this kind of authoritarianism, the Nation media group had be hesitant to such extreme compromises.
Uganda’s case is not different from Gambian’s time under Yahya Jammah when his government harassed journalists, arrested, intimidated and abducted journalists and eroding everything to do with press freedom.
Yahya Jammeh’s dictatorship used licensing laws and tramped charges against journalists similar to what Uganda has done to journalist Timothy Kalyegira a columnist of Daily Monitor which in long run threatens bold writers, editors and broadcasters into discretionally self-censorship.
Am scared that the moment a nation begins to fear questions more than its own errors then you certainly know that it has lost its soul and slept into a state of totalitarianism.
History reminds us that silencing dissenting voices and press freedom has never made any nation stronger but rather postponing the hard conversations they will inevitably face in the future.
The real test of a democratic country is it react to the truth and dissenting voices, for instance many nations have come crises by dialoguing with alternative opinion voices rather than crashing them into subjugation.
Traditional Media is already suffering from the insurgency of social media and Artificial intelligence, cyber harassment of journalists, high cost of business with low returns on investments, low pay of journalists, corruption and sexual harassment of female journalists and worst challenge of all are draconian laws and regulations fueling censorship in editorial and news rooms, all these are contributing to suppression of press freedom.
In my view point , sieging and censoring daily monitor and NTV will mark the death of democracy in Uganda and usher in a rebirth of totalitarianism has it was under Idi Amin Dada.
I predict that after the 1st July 2026 meeting between Mr. Rostam Aziz (NMG owner) and Gen. Muhoozi Kainerugaba (a renown sworn non-believer of free media) the Daily Monitor and NTV will slip into discretionally self-censorship and eventually mark a massive erosion of press freedom in Uganda’s media landscape.
The question for us all sound citizens and netizens is, when independent media and press freedom is under siege, what happens next?
Robert Kigongo is a sustainable development analyst.