The High Court has awarded Shs 100 million to Anne Twinomugisha Muhairwe, the deputy IGG, after finding that social media commentator and journalist Dean Lubowa Saava defamed her through a series of TikTok videos.
In her ruling, Justice Joyce Kavuma said that the statements made by Lubowa about Muhairwe were false, malicious, and damaging to her reputation.
Muhairwe, who serves as deputy Inspector General of Government, sued Lubowa in 2025 after he repeatedly accused her on his TV10 Gano Mazima TikTok channel of corruption and abuse of office.
Lubowa is a prominent social media commentator. He is also the operator of the TV10 Gano Mazima, an online news platform that regularly discusses politics and public affairs.
In July 2025, Lubowa aired a series of videos alleging that Muhairwe had stolen money meant for wetlands, received a Shs 200 million bribe linked to a road project in Kaabong, and was unfit to hold public office.
Muhairwe denied all the allegations and told the court that Lubowa’s statements were “malicious, false, and made recklessly without any basis or justification whatsoever.”
She further stated that she had never received any money from engineers working on the Kaabong road project and had never even been to the district located in the Karamoja sub-region.
To support her case, Muhairwe called Savio Kakooza Ntensibe, the director of Ombudsman Affairs at the IG, whom Lubowa claimed in the videos was the alleged intermediary who collected the money.
Ntensibe told the court that he had never been Muhairwe’s personal assistant and had never collected money from any engineer or contractor on her behalf. He also said there had been no investigations in Kaabong District as alleged by Luboowa.
Lubowa did not file any defence despite being served with the summons and court documents on August 27, 2025, while Muhairwe was represented by ASB Advocates.
Muhairwe’s lawyers argued that Lubowa had engaged in a systematic campaign to portray Muhairwe as “fraudulent, corrupt, a thief and not a fit and proper person to hold public office.”
Justice Kavuma agreed with Muhairwe’s lawyers and found that the publications met the legal test for defamation.
“The evidence adduced by [Muhairwe] clearly shows that the statements published by [Lubowa] were defamatory in nature and intended to cause injury to the reputation of the Deputy Inspector General of Government,” she ruled.
Justice Kavuma said Lubowa acted maliciously because he continued publishing the allegations despite warnings from Muhairwe to stop.
She noted that Muhairwe’s evidence remained unchallenged because Lubowa chose not to defend the case.
“It is important to recall that evidence not challenged or denied, if credible, must be accepted and acted upon as establishing the fact stated therein,” she observed.
Having found Lubowa liable for defamation, she turned to the issue of compensation.
Justice Kavuma noted that reputation is one of the most valuable assets a person possesses and that the law of defamation exists to protect that reputation from unjustified attack.
She considered the seriousness of the allegations, the size of Lubowa’s audience, and his refusal to apologise.
Justice Kavuma observed that TV10 Gano Mazima’s TikTok page reaches more than 300,000 people, thereby increasing the extent of the injury caused to Muhairwe’s reputation.
“In the present case [Lubowa] did not show any form of remorse even when he was served with summons; he did not make any effort to answer the allegations,” Justice Kavuma said.
She, however, declined to award the Shs 300 million in exemplary damages sought by Muhairwe, holding that there was no evidence that Lubowa had earned any profit from the defamatory publications.
She instead awarded Muhairwe Shs100 million as general damages and issued four other orders.
First, she said the statements made by Lubowa were false and defamatory. Second, she ordered Lubowa to issue a public apology on the TV10 Gano Mazima platform.
Third, Justice Kavuma permanently barred Lubowa from making further defamatory statements about Muhairwe, and lastly, Lubowa was instructed to meet the legal costs.
