More than 12 hours after Julius Kitone, a reporter at Next Media, perished in a road accident, the company has yet to announce his demise on any of its platforms.
We have been told that some people in the editorial department where Kitone worked are not happy about the delay.
Kitone was one of the eight people who died yesterday evening after the vehicle they were travelling in (Toyota Hiace) collided with a trailer along the Mbarara-Lyantonde highway.
Police attributed the crash to reckless driving on the part of the driver of the Toyota Hiace, who attempted to overtake in a corner.
The story of the accident was even covered on some of Next Media’s platforms, like Nile Post, but there was no mention of Kitone as one of the victims.
Kitone’s death sent shockwaves in the newsroom as friends and colleagues struggled to come to terms with it. Many openly wailed.
Some of them, like Shamim Nabakooza, a senior reporter, posted on social media expressing their sadness at Kitone’s passing and how they are going to miss him.
Yet senior management, which concluded its annual retreat at Brovad Sands Lodge in Kalangala yesterday, is yet to give a direction.
Top TV goes silent as their reporter battles with life threatening injuries
Desire Derekford Mugumisa, the senior corporate communications officer at Next Media, told us that management hesitated to communicate fast because the initial reports of Kitone’s death were not yet clear.
“Death is a very sensitive thing, and you have to be sure before you announce anything. The first reports we got were that he was still stuck in the wreckage, so we were not sure,” Mugumisa said.
He said Kitone was highly treasured by the company and assured that management would issue a statement today on the way forward [it finally issued a statement at 11.20 am on X].
“We shall work closely with the family,” he said.
Sources say Kitone had travelled to Mbarara, on his day off, a day before, for personal engagements without informing management or his immediate supervisors.
Kitone, 34, joined Next Media as a freelance reporter based in Luwero in 2016. He became staff in 2020 and moved to the headquarters were he was placed on the Luganda news desk.
He was passionate about climate change and even attended the COP29 Climate Change Conference in Baku, Azerbaijan, in 2024.
“He was kind and humble. I don’t think there is anybody who can say Kitone wronged them in one way or another. We shall miss him,” one of his colleagues told us.
