Many people’s lives have been turned upside down by the shutdown. Maureen Karamagi, wife of Arinaitwe Rugyendo, a director, speaks about the hazards of a journalist’s job and how one cannot prepare for what has happened.
Karamagi told The Observer, “You cannot have peace, when you know that your loved one is in prison. You worry, especially when you know that their source of income has been disrupted.”
Like the spouses of other Red Pepper bosses, Karamagi has witnessed the zeal and determination with which her husband built the company. And so, even with this current challenge, as she refers to it, she finds the energy; gets up with a positive mind to go and work, trying to keep things normal for their children aged ten, eight, six and three.
It has not been easy.
“The children ask me everyday where their father is. But I cannot bring myself to tell them that he is in prison. It would depress them. So, beyond the physical exertions of work, I make sure that I protect them emotionally too,” Karamagi said.
Since the Red Pepper premises were cordoned off on November 28, top staff picked up, Karamagi has kept the children from watching the news so that they do not see their father and his colleagues in court. They have been told that daddy is abroad, although they have not stopped wondering why he has not called to ask them what he should bring them.
Karamagi hopes this ordeal ends soon. She believes that although her husband and his colleagues have been denied bail, which she feels is unjustifiable, God will get them released. Press freedom defenders and the journalism fraternity have defended the paper regardless of divided individual opinions about its journalism.
Dennis Nyombi, the Red Pepper lawyer, told The Observer that this unprecedented incarceration has set the company back tremendously. All adverts, accounting for millions of shillings in revenue, and other business dealings, have stalled.
Several sister companies under the Red Pepper umbrella like Juice FM, Kamunye newspaper, Hello and Bwino newspaper were closed too. Upcountry offices in Gulu, Lira, Fort Portal, Mbarara, Mbale, Jinja and Arua have been rendered redundant.
In Kampala, close to 200 employees are jobless now. Many had been anticipating a Christmas package from the company.
Worse still, during the police raid, a lot of private property belonging to workers was confiscated and damaged. One graphics designer told The Observer, “My phones were taken, so I lost all my business contacts.”
He added, “With my computer in hand, I would have secured a few private design projects, to make some money and keep going…”
On social media, some people post about how the Red Pepper destroyed people’s lives, ‘concocting stories’ about them. Therefore, they argue, they deserve whatever they are getting.
Probably no one feels as helpless as news editor, Richard Kintu, who missed some exams at Makerere University. He is a first year bachelor of commerce student. Arrangements have since been made to enable him sit his papers in jail.
The detained Red Pepper owners and staff are expected back in court on December 19, to have their bail application reconsidered.