By Andrew Irumba
State minister for Finance, Investment and Privatization Evelyn Anite has congratulated newly appointed Uganda Telecom (UTL) Administrator Ruth Sebatindira, after successfully fighting Twebaze Bemanya out of the government entity.
Anite also hailed President Yoweri Museveni for fighting what she termed as Negative Forces (Mafia), who wanted to frustrate the revival and revamp of UTL.
Sebatindira, formerly president Uganda Laws Society (ULS), comes to UTL with a lot of legal expertise and experience to fulfill what Bemanya reportedly failed to achieve.
Sebatindira’s appointment was announced Thursday by the High Court following a presidential directive for UTL to get a new administrator.
Shortly after the appointment, Anite tweeted thus; “Congratulations to the incoming Administrator of Uganda Telecom Ms Ruth Ssebatindira.She is an esteemed attorney and former head of the Uganda Law Society. As UTL is revived, we are confident it will continue to serve Ugandans competently and with utmost professionalism.”Anite continued that “Big thanks to @ KagutaMuseveni for all the support and the creditors who helped us overcome negative pressure.”
Anite happens to be the happiest National Reistance Movement (NRM) cadre, after winning the war against Bemanya and his allies, to wit Permanent Secretary Keith Kuhakanizi, Ministers Kahinda Otafiire and Matia Kasaija, plus Deputy Attorney General Mwesigwa Rukutana.
In June 2019, Anite told members of Parliament that government no longer had control of UTL Operations of UTL and couldn’t access the company premises to do any audits or understand how the entity is currently run.
The company administrators, led by Bemanya, denied all the accusations that the minister lodged, insisting that they never refused any government official from accessing UTL premises nor did they deny them access to audit the company as was alleged.
Anite quickly responded with a directive asking the Attorney General’s office to fire Bemanya from the position of administrator of UTL, something that the AG instead blocked citing that “there are no grounds to remove the administrator of UTL from office”.
The back and forth letters that were exchanged proved to be a war of authority which was later settled by the President, who is the Appointing Authority .
Thus in a letter dated July 3, 2019 addressed to Honourable Kahinda Otafire – the Justice and Constitutional Affairs minister, President Yoweri Museveni asked that no action other than what was resolved by the Cabinet should be taken in regards to UTL. He directed Otafiire and Matia Kasaija to replace Bemanya.
However, Otafiire instead teamed up with Kasaija, Rukutana and Muhakanizi and together they pulled ropes with Anite, until their supremacy war ended up in court, which also ruled UTL had to get new Administration to safeguard the interests of all shareholders.
But it should be noted that amidst her wars with Bemanya, Anite complained that there was a group of mafia that was after her life because they never wanted the Administration of UTL to be changed; the appointment of Sebatindira has surely not left the said ‘Mafia’ happy at all.
Sebatindira’s Expterince and Academic Profile
Sebatindira is a Senior Counsel and past President of the Uganda Law Society( ULS) from 2013 – 2016. She has LLM from The University of Manchester, UK, is a member of Uganda Law Society, East Africa Law Society, International Bar Association, International Fiscal Association and Association of International Petroleum Negotiators (AIPN).
She is a currently a Founding Partner at Ligomarc Advocates since 2003. At ULS, Ruth has built both legal expertise and business acumen out of her twenty three years’ experience in commercial litigation, corporate transactions and tax advisory assignments.
Previously, her major areas of work included; corporate insolvency, company/shareholder disputes, lender enforcement actions and trademarks litigation.
Her current assignments include; tax litigation and tax advisory, energy and infrastructure projects contracts and negotiations and oil and gas agreements.
She is a Commissioner at the Judicial Service Commission which advises the President of Uganda on appointments for Judges, exercises disciplinary control over Judicial officers and advises on the administration of Justice in Uganda.
Sebatindira also helped to set up the Women Lawyers Committee at the Uganda Law Society in 2011, and served as its first Chair.
As Board Chair at Special Olympics Uganda, she works to end discrimination against people with intellectual disabilities through Olympic-type sports.
