This week has been marred by controversial news surrounding MTN Uganda’s top executives being deported over allegations that police labelled as national security threats. In what has seemed like an undercover plot, the Uganda Police force took an initiative to hunt down the telecom company chiefs and forced them out.
On Saturday, 19 January 2019, the MTN Uganda Chief Marketing Officer, Olivier Prentout, was arrested by police at Entebbe airport upon arrival from a business trip abroad.
On the morning of Monday 21 January 2019, the MTN Uganda Head of Sales and Distribution, Annie Bilenge Tabura, was arrested by unidentified security personnel upon arrival at the MTN headquarter offices, in Kololo, Kampala.
Both Mr. Prentout and Mrs. Bilenge have been deported from Uganda to their home countries, France and Rwanda respectively.
Before the dust could settle, MTN Uganda’s General Manager Mobile Financial Services, Ms Elisa Musolini was also summoned by police’s special investigations division on allegations of inciting violence contrary to laws that govern this country.
Reports indicate that Ms Elsa Mussolini was eventually deported.
The others called on to make statements in regards to the MTN Uganda saga are Mr. Anthony Katamba – the General Manager of Corporate Affairs, the current MTN CEO Mr. Wim, and the Chairman of MTN Uganda, Charles Mbire who have been summoned to Police.
Is it the information?
Unverified information indicates that “a section of employees were recruited and positioned in sensitive positions with access to very important information”, which information was being channeled to to personnel who did not have to receive it.
It’s alleged that from the information obtained, “Rwanda has full access to call records and GPS locations of high profile individuals in government and security, this is done in real-time.”
Is it the money?
According to classified information obtained by ChimpReports, MTN Uganda officials received funds from foreign countries which they wired through mobile money accounts to facilitate the political mobilization of Bobi Wine alias Robert Kyagulanyi. All this is unverified however.
The Bosco advert?
One of the key activities that the ousted MTN marketing manager Olivier Prentout undertook, was the production of a popular advert ‘Bosco’ which was quickly exploited by the opposition to mock President Museveni who was popularizing drip irrigation.
As soon as the ‘Bosco’ advert was released by MTN, Ugandans were quick to use it to describe Mr. Museveni as Bosco.
Is it inciting violence, as said by Police?
Police sources say that they are looking for MTN employees suspected to have participated in inciting violence. While the police authorities and other security agencies did not disclose wider details of the alleged crime, we can only tell less of the exactly how and when MTN employees incited violence.
MTN unending woes
The year has began with the telecom company striving hard to renew her out of date license. Rumours about town state that the MTN General Manager in charge of Corporate Services, Anthony Katamba was told by MTN South Africa that “renewal of his contract was hinged on his ability to secure renewal of MTN Uganda’s license.”
Last year, Police raided one of MTN data centers over allegations of breach of national security. This saw several network engineers arrested to facilitate police investigations. Since then, no allegations ever came up not until the recent arrests and questioning.
In our second part, we shall uncover more details that could be the reason behind MTN Uganda’s top executives being arrested, questioned, and deported.
