The Daily Monitor has apologized to the Attorney General, Kiryowa Kiwanuka, for publishing an article in which Isaac Ssemakadde, the Uganda Law Society president, allegedly defamed the minister.
The article, which has since been deleted from Monitor’s platforms, was titled: “Ssemakadde accuses Kiryowa in Museveni letter, demands ouster.” It was published on February 2, 2025.
Ssemakadde and Kiwanuka have been at loggerheads, and the ULS president has on several platforms accused the AG of frustrating the cause of justice. Ssemakadde has since left the country after an arrest warrant was issued against him.
Yet Daily Monitor’s apology raises some questions:
Did Kiwanuka threaten to sue one of the leading independent media organizations over the Ssemakadde article? Did the newspaper investigate the allegations in the article and find them to be untrue? Has Monitor become a victim of the disagreements between the two? Why apologize two months after the article was published?
The apology from the editor stated: “We [Daily Monitor] should have done more to independently substantiate the truthfulness of the claims in the said letter, which informed our story. We did not do that and should, therefore, not have published the unverified and unsubstantiated allegations. We are sorry.”
It went on: “We therefore hereby retract the said story in its entirety and unreservedly apologize to Hon. Kiryowa Kiwanuka SC, and all those affected by the publication for the distress, embarrassment, ridicule, and humiliation caused by the publication.”
