By KT Writer
Joviah Irene Atek, who until 2011 was an ordinary NRM media activist based in Gulu, has forcefully taken over management and ownership of Mega Fm, a GoU radio station that has been part of UBC, taking care of the Acholi sub region and parts of South Sudan since August 2002.
In 2011, president Museveni for the first time defeated the opposition in northern Uganda and became very excited. Atek is one of the media activists who turned up to claim it was their mobilisation and anti-Kizza Besigye propaganda on area radios that made the son of Kaguta win.
In the midst of that euphoria, Atek got herself appointed and made the Mega fm station manager by the UBC board. She acrimoniously replaced David Okidi who was blackmailed before people in government for not being NRM enough.
However, in 2022, Atek fellout with the UBC board after the Corporation’s land title relating to 80 acres of prime land in Gulu city disappeared after she had refused to pass it on to the UBC headquarters in Kampala for proper custody. She was suspended when she defied Board summons to come to Kampala and explain her actions. In March 2024, the board permanently expelled her; having exhausted all the other options.
Instead of handing over office, Atek simply declared a coup under which she not only became the head of management but also declared ownership over Mega fm which she now says has never belonged to government. Using her own company called Mega Community Broadcasts Ltd, Atek has been frequenting URSB offices in Kampala seeking to alter documents to permanently kick out the government.
Her other co-owners, according to URSB documents, include Anthony Akol, Amuru RDC Stephen Latek Odong, Musa Khalil and Kato Ahmed Hassan. Not very long ago, David Winstone Agaba who is the MD for UBC through which the GoU owns Mega fm, sent a team of 6 officials to go forcefully get Atek out. They ended up being locked up by RDC Stephen Odong Latek who accused them of criminal tresspass on private property.
The RDC insisted that this had never been government property because it’s privately owned with its own board and shareholders. Agaba has since written to PS Presidency Hajji Yunnus Kakande demanding for disciplinary action against RDC Latek Odong for aiding those grabbing government property.
Atek, who is a diehard NRM cadre, has since gone ahead to change the Mega fm headed paper, logos, fire staff and close Mega fm Kampala liaison office that has always been based at UBC headquarters in Kampala.
She recently sent Betty Arach, who was administering the liaison office on behalf of UBC, parking. Instead, Atek has opened her own office in Kampala and directed all advertisers, including government MDAs, to direct all Mega fm adverts business through that same office. She has also been in Kampala meeting advertisers to assure them that Mega fm no longer has anything to do with UBC because its private property and not government’s.
The UBC management recently placed a newspaper advert notifying the public and advertisers to shun her because she had been fired and no longer station manager for Mega fm. However, she ignored all that and carried on with her mischief, which COSASE MPs have vowed to rely on to order for her arrest and prosecution by the state.
Mega FM annually makes an average of Ugx2bn in advertisement sales. Something like 60% of that cash ends up being collected, which is a lot of money for Atek who is also continuing to operate Mega fm station in UBC premises in Gulu where even the monthly utility bills are still being sent to UBC to be cleared!
Gratefully, all this has been captured as an audit query in the auditor general’s report over which Cosase boss Medard Segona will be summoning the ICT ministry leadership for some grilling. Some of the fired Mega fm staff have already reported to Minister Chris Baryomunsi complaining about missed salaries as Atek goes about firing them one by one.
The staff show that the disruptions Atek has caused at Mega fm will affect Museveni’s 2026 campaigns and the popularisation of government programs which Mega fm has been doing very well since its inception.
The situation recently escalated when Rajab, the accountant the ICT ministry had deployed to manage the Mega fm finances in the care taker capacity, survived being assasinated and his wife by a man who had trailed them for days on a motorcyle. The would-be assailant had double thoughts and chickened out but that was after narrating everything to Rajab’s wife.
On a separate incident, a group of kifeesi boys operating in Gulu City had been contracted to use pavers to bump off Rajab but failed because he proved too vigilant ever returning home early. He equally survived several poison attempts at work inside Mega fm premises.
He was advised to open a Police case which the CIDs took up. The ICT Ministry PS Amina Zawedde re-enforced all this by writing to the IGP Abbas Byakagaba asking for Police deployment to secure the Mega fm premises against Atek and her other accomplices. Even this Police intervention hasn’t stopped Atek from carrying on with her muschief at the expense of the GoU.
Line Minister Godfrey Kabbyanga has also intervened and written several letters besides organising stakeholders meetings but all in vain. Kabbyanga had also created a committee of two ICT Ministry officers to force Atek out but this too hasn’t succeeded.
The two officers are principal communications officer Pius Mwinganisa and head internal audit Patrick Ohaya Mawadri. They have continued to be successfully intimidated by Atek’s agents which has cowed them into total silence. This has allowed the NRM cadre to carry on with her mischief.
The only success that has been sustained against Atek relates to URSB to whose boss the office of Solicitor General has been writing regarding the GoU’s indisputable ownership of Mega fm.
On behalf of Solicitor General, Elizabeth Nyakwebara has been writting to URSB boss making it clear that Mega fm Gulu is government-owned and no one else should be allowed to register any private company relating to it.
In one of her letters, Nyakwebara raised a red flag about Mega fm Ltd and Mega Community Broadcasts Ltd as some of the names rogue-minded individuals have been trying to use to rip off the GoU.
She has also made reference to the UK DFID grant with which Mega Fm Gulu was first established in 2002 which makes it fully government-owned because DFID proceeded to donate and hand over the radio to the GoU to promote quality communication and messaging about pacification and reconstruction of Acholi-land after the LRA war.
The URSB boss is also notified about pending civil suits in court regarding the Mega fm ownership and the SG goes ahead to direct Mercy Kainobwisho, the registrar general of companies, to halt all manner of documentation or registration relating to Mega fm. There is also talk about a one Jennifer Ayot Okech who at some point owned what became Mega Fm Gulu.
All this writing by Elizabeth Nyakwebara is reinforced by contents of several correspondences exchanged between the IICT PS Amina Zawedde on one hand and the Attorney General’s chambers on the other.
Zawedde has since furnished the AG chambers with all the relevant documenentation aimed at proving that Mega fm is 100% government of Uganda property owned through Uganda Broadcasting Corporation (UBC).
Yet inspite of all this clarification and the DFID documentation, making it clear that Mega fm is GoU’s, Jovia Irene Atek hasn’t backed off her claims to be the owner and Ugandans’ only hope now can only lie in the Medard Segona-led COSASE to crack the whip real hard on this NRM media activist who is clearly full of self-entitlement. Only time will tell. Give us feedback on this story through our email: kamwokyatimes@gmail.com
