Prophet Kakande Prophesied Tamale Mirundi's death(Nabbi Kakande Abuulidde Tamale Mirundi Lwalifa. Asazeewo Kwenyeera Nile Special Crate 10 Buli Lunaku)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=PAGeC_ev1kw
Using the devil to fight the devil: POPE's FOLLOWER Tamale Mirundi says The solutions to land problems in Uganda should be violence and witchcraft
https://watchmanafrica.blogspot.com/2017/06/popes-follower-tamale-mirundi-says.html
When Tamale Mirundi wrote about the divine curse from the Catholic Church to Mengo
https://mulengeranews.com/when-tamale-mirundi-wrote-about-catholc-church-his-so-called-divine-curse/
My analysis
The late Tamale Mirundi was given access to many media houses to parade the deception that Yoweri Museveni is a good man although his government was hijacked by mafias. In exposing the so called MAFIA, he stepped on a number of toes of the top brass in Museveni’s government. This is the reason why Tamale Mirundi intimated that he was poisoned in state house on several occasions. Tamale Mirundi was ignorant about the criminal neo-liberal State presided over by Museveni. Fred Lumbuye exposed the deceptions by Tamale Mirundi when he urged that Uganda is indeed a MAFIA state presided over by the chief Mafia, Yoweri Museveni.
How Tamale Mirundi impacted the Catholic Church
https://www.pulse.ug/news/local/how-tamale-mirundi-impacted-the-catholic-church/mxqeehb
Speaking at Mirundi’s home in Kirimannyaga Zone, Zzana on Wednesday, Gladys Nakaddu a resident highlighted how the Mirundi family have served as a pillar at the St Matia Mulumba Church.
“Mirundi’s wife (Juliet Tamale) and children are very active in the church,” she said.
“His wife is a leader and a part of the Caritas Uganda (a conservationist development arm of the Catholic Church of Uganda).
“His daughter, Teddy Nantongo is the head of the Married at the church; another daughter Maria is in the church choir, while his son Dr Tamale is our youth leader.”
Nakaddu says all this would not have been possible without the input and support of Tamale Murundi.
Read: Tamale Mirundi family insists on postmortem to ‘rule out poison’
“His family has been a pillar of the church. You cannot say that his entire family took up leadership positions in the church and he did not play a role in it.”
Supporting church initiatives
Mrs Ages Nannyonga, a municipal councilor and church leader also credited the late Mirundi for supporting the church’s groups and initiatives.
“We as members of the Mother Mary’s Army often came here and he called us his children. He loved us and he helped us financially,” she said.
Mirundi many times boasted of his commitment to his religion.
In his later days, however, he spoke out against the church and even claimed to have turned into a traditionalist.
Changing his name
However, his elder brother Ssali says that from childhood, Tamale was a staunch Catholic, who even changed his name to reflect this.
According to Ssali, Mirundi’s birth name was Bulasio Mirundi which he changed to Joseph, because he loved the biblical Joseph the Worker
Tamale Mirundi the patriot leaves mixed legacy
https://observer.ug/index.php/news/headlines/82161-tamale-mirundi-the-patriot-leaves-mixed-legacy
Written by URN
The country
is reeling from the death of renowned media practitioner and former
presidential press secretary, Joseph Tamale Mirundi who passed on today
morning (August 14) at Kisubi Hospital.
Mirundi, aged sixty, was holding the
portfolio of senior presidential advisor on media and public relations, a
position he loved to hate. Son to Molly Namatovu and Yowana Mirundi of
Matale Kalagala, Rakai district, Mirundi leaves a mixed legacy, with
some thinking he was a reckless and fearless commentator while others
see a thoughtful and independent commentator.
He has been renowned for his
no-holds-barred attack on excesses in government despite being part of
the ruling establishment. The journalist who reportedly made his way
from a humble beginning as a school drop-out was brought to Kampala city
by his brother – Ssali who was working with the then Munno Publications
in the early 1980s.
Mirundi, according to accounts took on
newspaper vending, a fit playing assist to his brother Ssali’s role but
took a keen interest in writing especially letters to the editor. Later,
he took on reporting about events and proved a worthwhile journalist.
He was never to look back as the paper sponsored him for short-term
training to hone his skills.
Soon he became a colossus at
reporting, rising to chief reporter at the paper. He was later to become
the paper’s editor but broke ranks with his employers in the early
1990s as some board members tried to force him to publish what he was
opposed to on ethical grounds.
Mirundi in the mid-1990s started
his own company, Lipoota Publication which published Lippota in Luganda
and The Report in English. The latter was more short-lived than Lipoota
though both publications did not flourish owing to the economic terrain
faced by the media then. The situation might have forced him to
compromise here and there for the enterprise to survive.
Later, he founded The Voice,
which former minister Sam Kuteesa heavily bankrolled for political
capital but that also did not live long and collapsed. He is also
remembered for his struggles to maintain free media as the government
moved to regulate the industry by bringing the press and media statute
that required journalists to have a minimum of a diploma for reporters
and a degree for editors.
In the panic that engulfed media
practitioners, journalists moved to claim self-regulation, which failed.
Those struggles saw the media practitioners divided between the elite
(as Makerere University opened to mass communication and journalism).
The
“Abataasoma (uneducated)” who were dominant by numbers belonged to the
Uganda Journalists Association (UJA) as the elite registered under the
Uganda News Paper Editors and Proprietors Association (UNEPA).
The
latter group belonged to the top honchos of the then-nascent Monitor
Publications. Mirundi belonged to the former of which he was president
at one time. Mirundi was to later (2003) go back to school, scooping a
degree from Makerere University before becoming the longest-serving
presidential press secretary (PPS) to President Yoweri Museveni (13
years), who is said to have bankrolled his university studies.
A
close relationship had developed through the numerous presidential press
conferences that Mirundi attended. At one of those press conferences,
Mirundi would beat the president to a bet on whether he would defeat
Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) commander Joseph Kony and his belligerents
who were fighting government in northern Uganda. The deceased won his
million and went away smiling.
In 2015 he was relieved of his PPS
duties in what till his death he described as an intrigue-filled
process that bordered on blackmail, ethnic sectarianism and outright
abuse from some presidential office colleagues. Nonetheless, he remained
a self-proclaimed admirer of Museveni, baffling many as he claimed
loath for the system the president headed.
Even then, he remained
vocal in his social media and print publications against excesses of
power in Uganda, always doing it in a dramatic, comical and sometimes
abusive style. Like him or hate him, Mirundi had a hero and patriot in
him. Rest in peace Mirundi.
Mirundi, according to accounts took on newspaper vending, a fit playing assist to his brother Ssali’s role but took a keen interest in writing especially letters to the editor. Later, he took on reporting about events and proved a worthwhile journalist. He was never to look back as the paper sponsored him for short-term training to hone his skills.
Soon he became a colossus at reporting, rising to chief reporter at the paper. He was later to become the paper’s editor but broke ranks with his employers in the early 1990s as some board members tried to force him to publish what he was opposed to on ethical grounds.
Mirundi in the mid-1990s started his own company, Lipoota Publication which published Lippota in Luganda and The Report in English. The latter was more short-lived than Lipoota though both publications did not flourish owing to the economic terrain faced by the media then. The situation might have forced him to compromise here and there for the enterprise to survive.
Later, he founded The Voice, which former minister Sam Kuteesa heavily bankrolled for political capital but that also did not live long and collapsed. He is also remembered for his struggles to maintain free media as the government moved to regulate the industry by bringing the press and media statute that required journalists to have a minimum of a diploma for reporters and a degree for editors.
In the panic that engulfed media practitioners, journalists moved to claim self-regulation, which failed. Those struggles saw the media practitioners divided between the elite (as Makerere University opened to mass communication and journalism).
The “Abataasoma (uneducated)” who were dominant by numbers belonged to the Uganda Journalists Association (UJA) as the elite registered under the Uganda News Paper Editors and Proprietors Association (UNEPA).
The latter group belonged to the top honchos of the then-nascent Monitor Publications. Mirundi belonged to the former of which he was president at one time. Mirundi was to later (2003) go back to school, scooping a degree from Makerere University before becoming the longest-serving presidential press secretary (PPS) to President Yoweri Museveni (13 years), who is said to have bankrolled his university studies.
A close relationship had developed through the numerous presidential press conferences that Mirundi attended. At one of those press conferences, Mirundi would beat the president to a bet on whether he would defeat Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) commander Joseph Kony and his belligerents who were fighting government in northern Uganda. The deceased won his million and went away smiling.
In 2015 he was relieved of his PPS duties in what till his death he described as an intrigue-filled process that bordered on blackmail, ethnic sectarianism and outright abuse from some presidential office colleagues. Nonetheless, he remained a self-proclaimed admirer of Museveni, baffling many as he claimed loath for the system the president headed.
Even then, he remained vocal in his social media and print publications against excesses of power in Uganda, always doing it in a dramatic, comical and sometimes abusive style. Like him or hate him, Mirundi had a hero and patriot in him. Rest in peace Mirundi.
Tamale Mirundi: the stubborn, sly and gifted orator I will miss
Written by Siraje Lubwama
On August 13, JOSEPH TAMALE MIRUNDI, the former presidential press secretary and senior presidential advisor on media, died.
He was an outspoken person, had an
acidic tongue, and used persuasive language that endeared him to the
masses. He also dared to delve into the untouchable issues. As long-time
friend and colleague Siraje Lubwama writes, Mirundi was a polarising
figure who was loved and loathed almost in equal measure.
I came
to know Tamale Mirundi in 1992 through my good friends Hussein Musa
Njuki and Haruna Kanaabi, the respective editor-in-chief and news editor
of the Wilson road-based Shariat weekly newsletter. He was a budding
freelance journalist who wrote for mainly Munno newspaper, but once in a
while transferred his stinging stories to Shariat.
From the
onset, Mirundi had the persona of a very independent person. He openly
declared that he was never baptized, claiming that when his father took
him to church to be baptized at the age of nine, he wrestled with the
parish priest and ran away. I learnt that John Ssali, his elder brother,
brought him to Kampala in 1979 and enrolled him at Kampala High School
in S2.
Even before
completing S6, Mirundi was already a reporter for Munno, and during the
NRM bush war, he got to interview key figures such as Gen Salim Saleh.
When NRM came to power in 1986, the early founders of Utoda, the taxi
operator in Kampala, patronised him as their de facto spokesperson
whenever they ran into trouble.
Mirundi never disappointed, and this
gave him the platform to become a mouthpiece for several distressed
entities and individuals in the city. Shortly after completing his Mass
Communication degree at Makerere University in the early nineties, many
of us were still comfortable with being employed, but Mirundi initiated
two independent newspaper publications, The Voice and Lipoota.
The
papers only sold a few hundred copies on the streets of Kampala, but it
was clear Mirundi was a man on an independent mission. He often
despised us who were employed in formal media entities. He also took a
pro-Buganda, anti-NRM stance that greatly endeared him to the ordinary
folk.
On two occasions in the nineties, Mirundi was elected
Uganda Journalists Association (UJA) president, and in both terms, I
served under him as publicity secretary.
During a periodic press
conference, Mirundi accused President Museveni of excluding Muslims from
the human rights abuse inquiry, which Justice Arthur Order was
chairing. In another press conference in the nineties, Mirundi staked
and won Shs 1 million against Museveni when he predicted that the UPDF
would not flush out Joseph Kony’s LRA in northern Uganda by 1997.
After
establishing himself as a popular panellist on various FM radio
stations, especially CBS FM, he tried his luck to vie for a
parliamentary seat in Kyotera in 2001. But by then, he had already
stepped on several high-profile toes, and there was already a force to
fight his ascendency.
He lost to little-known Pius Mujuzi thanks
largely to the influence of Gen. Elly Kayanja, whom Mirundi accused of
using the UPDF to intimidate voters. Tamale and Kayanja later made
peace. After burning his fingers in politics, Mirundi amplified his
outspokenness and activism, and he got patronised by several leading
politicians and businessmen.
Jaberi Bidandi Ssali, then minister
of Local Government, covertly backed him financially while businessman
James Kibuuka Mulowooza bankrolled the publication of Murundi’s
occasional ‘intelligence’ pamphlets disguised as books.
JOINING THE STATE
By
2004, Mirundi’s stature had risen so high he had become the most
sought-after panellist for political talk shows. He had the rare gift of
simplifying complex historical, political, security and intelligence
issues with similes easily discernible by ordinary folk. He, at times,
used sexual innuendos. Where other panellists would be given a minute to
talk, Mirundi’s time was always unlimited.
However, Mirundi
would soon fall out with the Buganda kingdom when he made a 180-degree
turn to attack several kingdom officials, including the Kabaka. Rumours
swirled that he had been ‘bought’ or become disillusioned, but Mirundi
insisted he was speaking his mind.
He also used his popularity to
attack Dr Kizza Besigye and it didn’t come as a surprise in December,
2004, when President Museveni, at the urging of his principal private
secretary, Amelia Kyambadde, appointed Mirundi deputy press secretary.
He
told me back then that as he was moving at Queen’s Way towards Katwe to
meet Gen Henry Tumukunde and others comrades to discuss forming a
political party when he was waylaid by security operatives who bundled
him in a car and drove him to Rwakitura to meet President Museveni.
“At Rwakitura, I asked him [Museveni] for money but he instead offered me a job I couldn’t resist,” he told me back then.
That
proved to be a turning point for Mirundi as he became the chief
defender of President Museveni. Interestingly, in the course of acting
as the president’s ‘barking dog,’ even several top-level government
officials found themselves on the negative end of Mirundi’s acidic
tongue. He openly harangued then vice president, Gilbert Bukenya, for
being a womanizer. He labelled Gen Jim Muhwezi as the most corrupt
person in Uganda. No one, even in government, was safe from Mirundi.
So
lethal was Mirundi’s tongue that many corrupt officials dreaded him
knowing about their dealings. However, Mirundi made many of his
utterances without clear evidence or proof. It also became clear that he
was always being used in internal fights within government.
In
all this, it always intrigued me why no one took action against
Mirundi’s often reckless utterances that had the power to change
appointments or alter multibillion-dollar deals. He always confided in
me that no Ugandan apart from President Museveni can take him on because
“they all have skeletons in their closets.”
The one person who
dared to take him on was Charles Muganzi, the former Ministry of Works
permanent secretary, who dragged him to court for defamation.
According
to reports, Mirundi settled the case out-of-court in 2012 for about Shs
150 million. Behind the scenes, however, Mirundi always had my best
interests. He always shared intelligence information with me, especially
in regards to Muslim arrests. He was always concerned about the
government’s arbitrary arrest of Muslims.
During the September
2009 Buganda riots, after the government stopped the katikkiro from
visiting Kayunga, Tamale alerted me and fellow panellists on Radio
Simba’s Gasimbagane ne Banamawulire about an impending raid by security
operatives to arrest us on air. We escaped through the windows and
narrowly avoided arrest.
LEAVING STATE HOUSE
In
2015, President Museveni, under immense pressure from close associates,
relieved Mirundi of his position as press secretary. The machinations
that led to this are still debatable to this day, but Mirundi was never
the same.
Whereas State House continued to offer education
scholarships to his children, Mirundi felt betrayed and spent the rest
of his life lamenting about the circumstances that led to his sacking.
Mirundi’s ouster from the State House greatly broke him down, to the
extent that he frequently had confused perspectives of the government.
He
often said that a group of thieves and self-seekers surrounded a good
man in President Museveni. Some of the people he attacked relentlessly
were Odrek Rwabwogo, Andrew Mwenda, Col Edith Nakalema, and Gen.
Nalweyiso.
GUN FOR HIRE?
For all his
influence, Mirundi spent the last few years of his life as a downgraded
version of his former self. The Mirundi, who used to turn tables and
influence decisions in key government boardrooms with a single utterance
on radio, was reduced to providing comic relief for social media
enthusiasts.
It also became evident that his love for the bottle,
or simply alcoholism, was taking a toll on him as he reduced himself to
sometimes uttering vulgar statements in a bid to stay relevant in media
circles.
At the time of his death, his influence had greatly
waned, and it had become a public secret that Mirundi was a sure-fire
gun for hire for influential people to settle political and personal
scores.
I came to know Tamale Mirundi in 1992 through my good friends Hussein Musa Njuki and Haruna Kanaabi, the respective editor-in-chief and news editor of the Wilson road-based Shariat weekly newsletter. He was a budding freelance journalist who wrote for mainly Munno newspaper, but once in a while transferred his stinging stories to Shariat.
From the onset, Mirundi had the persona of a very independent person. He openly declared that he was never baptized, claiming that when his father took him to church to be baptized at the age of nine, he wrestled with the parish priest and ran away. I learnt that John Ssali, his elder brother, brought him to Kampala in 1979 and enrolled him at Kampala High School in S2.
The papers only sold a few hundred copies on the streets of Kampala, but it was clear Mirundi was a man on an independent mission. He often despised us who were employed in formal media entities. He also took a pro-Buganda, anti-NRM stance that greatly endeared him to the ordinary folk.
On two occasions in the nineties, Mirundi was elected Uganda Journalists Association (UJA) president, and in both terms, I served under him as publicity secretary.
During a periodic press conference, Mirundi accused President Museveni of excluding Muslims from the human rights abuse inquiry, which Justice Arthur Order was chairing. In another press conference in the nineties, Mirundi staked and won Shs 1 million against Museveni when he predicted that the UPDF would not flush out Joseph Kony’s LRA in northern Uganda by 1997.
After establishing himself as a popular panellist on various FM radio stations, especially CBS FM, he tried his luck to vie for a parliamentary seat in Kyotera in 2001. But by then, he had already stepped on several high-profile toes, and there was already a force to fight his ascendency.
He lost to little-known Pius Mujuzi thanks largely to the influence of Gen. Elly Kayanja, whom Mirundi accused of using the UPDF to intimidate voters. Tamale and Kayanja later made peace. After burning his fingers in politics, Mirundi amplified his outspokenness and activism, and he got patronised by several leading politicians and businessmen.
Jaberi Bidandi Ssali, then minister of Local Government, covertly backed him financially while businessman James Kibuuka Mulowooza bankrolled the publication of Murundi’s occasional ‘intelligence’ pamphlets disguised as books.
JOINING THE STATE
By 2004, Mirundi’s stature had risen so high he had become the most sought-after panellist for political talk shows. He had the rare gift of simplifying complex historical, political, security and intelligence issues with similes easily discernible by ordinary folk. He, at times, used sexual innuendos. Where other panellists would be given a minute to talk, Mirundi’s time was always unlimited.
However, Mirundi would soon fall out with the Buganda kingdom when he made a 180-degree turn to attack several kingdom officials, including the Kabaka. Rumours swirled that he had been ‘bought’ or become disillusioned, but Mirundi insisted he was speaking his mind.
He also used his popularity to attack Dr Kizza Besigye and it didn’t come as a surprise in December, 2004, when President Museveni, at the urging of his principal private secretary, Amelia Kyambadde, appointed Mirundi deputy press secretary.
He told me back then that as he was moving at Queen’s Way towards Katwe to meet Gen Henry Tumukunde and others comrades to discuss forming a political party when he was waylaid by security operatives who bundled him in a car and drove him to Rwakitura to meet President Museveni.
“At Rwakitura, I asked him [Museveni] for money but he instead offered me a job I couldn’t resist,” he told me back then.
That proved to be a turning point for Mirundi as he became the chief defender of President Museveni. Interestingly, in the course of acting as the president’s ‘barking dog,’ even several top-level government officials found themselves on the negative end of Mirundi’s acidic tongue. He openly harangued then vice president, Gilbert Bukenya, for being a womanizer. He labelled Gen Jim Muhwezi as the most corrupt person in Uganda. No one, even in government, was safe from Mirundi.
So lethal was Mirundi’s tongue that many corrupt officials dreaded him knowing about their dealings. However, Mirundi made many of his utterances without clear evidence or proof. It also became clear that he was always being used in internal fights within government.
In all this, it always intrigued me why no one took action against Mirundi’s often reckless utterances that had the power to change appointments or alter multibillion-dollar deals. He always confided in me that no Ugandan apart from President Museveni can take him on because “they all have skeletons in their closets.”
The one person who dared to take him on was Charles Muganzi, the former Ministry of Works permanent secretary, who dragged him to court for defamation.
According to reports, Mirundi settled the case out-of-court in 2012 for about Shs 150 million. Behind the scenes, however, Mirundi always had my best interests. He always shared intelligence information with me, especially in regards to Muslim arrests. He was always concerned about the government’s arbitrary arrest of Muslims.
During the September 2009 Buganda riots, after the government stopped the katikkiro from visiting Kayunga, Tamale alerted me and fellow panellists on Radio Simba’s Gasimbagane ne Banamawulire about an impending raid by security operatives to arrest us on air. We escaped through the windows and narrowly avoided arrest.
LEAVING STATE HOUSE
In 2015, President Museveni, under immense pressure from close associates, relieved Mirundi of his position as press secretary. The machinations that led to this are still debatable to this day, but Mirundi was never the same.
Whereas State House continued to offer education scholarships to his children, Mirundi felt betrayed and spent the rest of his life lamenting about the circumstances that led to his sacking. Mirundi’s ouster from the State House greatly broke him down, to the extent that he frequently had confused perspectives of the government.
He often said that a group of thieves and self-seekers surrounded a good man in President Museveni. Some of the people he attacked relentlessly were Odrek Rwabwogo, Andrew Mwenda, Col Edith Nakalema, and Gen. Nalweyiso.
GUN FOR HIRE?
For all his influence, Mirundi spent the last few years of his life as a downgraded version of his former self. The Mirundi, who used to turn tables and influence decisions in key government boardrooms with a single utterance on radio, was reduced to providing comic relief for social media enthusiasts.
It also became evident that his love for the bottle, or simply alcoholism, was taking a toll on him as he reduced himself to sometimes uttering vulgar statements in a bid to stay relevant in media circles.
At the time of his death, his influence had greatly waned, and it had become a public secret that Mirundi was a sure-fire gun for hire for influential people to settle political and personal scores.
