On May 15, 2023, Andrew Karamagi posted on his personal twitter account an article titled “Lt. Gen. Mugira has no moral authority to counsel Ugandans.” https://twitter.com/karamagi_andrew/status/1658001125247778816
Whereas Karamagi is entitled to his opinion, based on his past record, he should be the last person to educate Ugandans about morals. As a lawyer, Karamagi knows very well the repercussions of telling lies and spreading harmful propaganda.
First, I agree with Karamagi for the respect he accords Lt Gen Mugira when he describes him as, “By any standards, Lt Gen James Mugira is no ordinary Ugandan. He holds advanced qualifications in Law, and has served in several positions.” On that, no doubt we are all on the same page with Karamagi.
I surely won’t delve much on what Karamagi writes about the decorated General and senior officer of the mighty UPDF but rather leave for you readers to decide if Karamagi himself has the moral authority to talk about morals.
Talking about moral authority, on November 17, 2022, Karamagi and other opposition activists while in Nairobi-Kenya for the Human Rights Accountability Conference paraded accident victims and alleged that the government of Uganda was responsible for the visible injuries, while the people presented were all accident victims rather than torture as Karamagi and group claimed.
His sole intention was to discredit the government of Uganda, and through lies and propaganda account for donor funds in his field of activism.
At the Nairobi event, one of the victims Karamagi paraded was Moses Simbwa, a known accident victim whose motorcycle collided with a Subaru vehicle while overtaking a sugarcane truck at Bukeeka, along Kangulumira -Njeru road in mid-2021.
On the same event Richard Ssebuganda, a medical student at Makerere University who lost his fingers to a teargas canister explosion during the “open for all” protest, was also among the alleged torture victims paraded by Karamagi.
Ssebuganda lost his fingers when the canister exploded as he tried to throw it back at the police during the riot. However, the now fully healed Ssebuganda shocked the public when he
changed his testimony about this unfortunate incident in Nairobi, claiming to have lost his fingers due to torture.
This is the same Karamagi that is talking about morals when it’s his lack of morals that puts food on his table through lies, scheming and black mail.
In December 2020, City Businessman Sudhir Ruparelia Sued Karamagi Andrew for defamation. Karamagi who had written false information about Sudhir was in trouble and the city tycoon wanted Court to compel Karamagi to compensate him with Ugx 1.5Billion to cater for his reputation damage and other inconveniences caused to him.
In 2014, Karamagi was dragged to Court on charges of being a public nuisance when he grabbed the speech of the late former Attorney General, Peter Nyombi at the High Court Premises in Kampala. For someone studying law at the time, this was a very grave mistake and a sign of indiscipline.
Between 2019 and 2021 Karamagi was in charge of the black Monday campaigns organized by Action Aid Uganda (a Kansanga based International NGO).
The campaign was to expose corruption in Uganda and fliers were printed and circulated in the public. Karamagi as a chief architect, informal organizer and campaign activist misappropriated over Ugx 32million meant for printing brochures, paying street boys to give out fliers and also for printing t-shirts with Black Monday messages.
Karamagi couldn’t account for the funds, and funding for the campaign was halted by the donors. This prompted management to transfer him to Arusha Tanzania and later to Action Aid Zimbabwe where he has been undergoing rehabilitation.
There is an African saying that “Those who sleep in glass houses should never throw stones.”
For Karamagi, yes you can lecture young Ugandans about civil disobedience, activism or writing skills but at least not about morals for you don’t have any moral authority whatsoever to talk about that field not now or ever.
