Zeenode blackmail is motivated by 6 Billion fictitious claim. In Uganda, it has become common that unscrupulous individuals want to blackmail, tarnish the image and undermine the hard work and dedication of many focused people and high profile individuals with the intent of making money out of the situation.
Ugandans now blackmail individuals they disagree with under the guise of being anonymous. Government officials who disagree with ill-minded individuals are the most victims perhaps on account our society has settled for less. The notion that Government funds are there to be ‘eaten’ and or stolen persists in the mind of many Ugandans and as such, any accounting officers who attempt to stop the theft will be visited with vicious blackmail online in many cases by so-called anonymous writers yet the truth is the THUGS themselves are the authors.
Dr. Diana Atwine has been a victim too. Her ‘crimes’ are many… Hospitals that were built for two billion are now less than one billion. Garages that used to consume billions in fictitious repairs are no more as she set up a garage at the Ministry of Health that is doing the job at far lower charges than the private garages.
The latest victim of a similar nature has been city businessman Omar Mandela the proprietor of Mandela Group of companies, the parent company to Cafe Javas, City Tyres, City Oil, City Lubes, City World, Savers, and Mandela Auto Spares. In a social media attack that happened last week, a female customer at Café Javas (https://cafejavas.co.ug/user/home) alleged having been served an adulteration milkshake.
However, an investigation including a review of the CCTV footage of the preparation and service of the milkshake revealed that there was no adulteration of the milkshake following the ‘high’ standard protocols of food safety and hygiene of making the Oreo and Caramel milkshakes.
On informing the customer of the findings she threatened to circulate a video of her version of events if she was not paid a certain sum of money. She posted a social media video purporting to show that one of Café Javas Kampala branches served her a milkshake that contained a dead rat. The video went viral sparking debate on the customers’ claims which were unearthed being in bad faith, untrue, and intended to bring Cave Javas business into disrepute.
I have now read another of those lazy anonymous outbursts but luckily being in the University circles I know the details.
A group of seven or so individuals was employed by Kyambogo University upon finishing their studies in IT and Telecommunications to develop an automated system called e-Kampus. Their appointment letters were specific. To participate in the development of the software that was later registered as copyright of Kyambogo University in 2014.
These individuals took advantage of the university infrastructure and developed another system called Zeeversity that was not any different from e-Kampus and started vending it to Universities without the knowledge of Kyambogo but hosting the same on their servers etc.
In 2017, the forum for vice Chancellors agreed to use e-Kampus at all universities. Professor Ddumba the then chair of the forum presented the matter to the Minister of Education with a plea that the Ministry of ICT supports its further development to suit the business processes at all universities but specifically Makerere that had unique requirements. The Ministry of ICT accepted and that was followed by communication from Kyambogo accepting their system to be modified and deployed in universities. The Vice-Chancellor Prof. Katunguka seconded three people from Kyambogo’s DICTS to the Ministry of ICT. These were Dr. Okuonzi John, Weganga Philimon (son to Minister Kitutu) and Tumusiime Henry. He additionally proposed Zeenode, as a process partner. It turns out Zeenode was owned by the staff at DICTS.
The Ministry of ICT did the due process and gave a grant of 2.1 billion to Zeenode to do a proof of concept across all Public Universities and Tertiary Institutions, PUSATIs. On completion of the proof of concept, the Ministry pursued a framework contract for further development and maintenance that was capped at 3 billion for two Financial Years with advice to the vendors to seek the balance from universities that were using the system. The Ministry argued it was not their job to conclude the costs of maintenance on behalf of the universities. It actually offends the PPDA act.
Zeenode (https://www.zeenode.com/) was lazy, never followed the universities for the top-up, never upgraded the system to suit Makerere’s diverse interests but at the end of the contract gave the Ministry a bill of 6 billion in arrears. It is understood that they made several attempts to craft the then Permanent Secretary Vincent Bagiire Waiswa in the deal/theft of the imaginary arrears but he rejected the idea. It is also understood that the Minister (mother to one of the Zeenode proprietors) summoned him severally to agree on the arrears and the Bagiire stood his ground. They went to court. In fact, most of the details I have explained here are in the Ministry’s submissions to the court in their defense.
The aggressive and inept nature of these Zeenode boys was always a risk to the business continuity of universities thus the decision for Vice-Chancellors to develop another system, ACMIS, and abandon AIMS that was built on the foundation of e-Kampus but being claimed by Zeenode as their property. It is their loss of business opportunity occasioned by their indiscipline that they have chosen to spew insults at all authorities including blackmail and deliberate lies because they know the officials won’t answer back. In their suit, they sued Professor Nawangwe for writing a letter to the Ministry of ICT to express Makerere’s interest in developing their own system to move away from the system that did not meet their requirements.
Kyambogo applied to join the suit and despite their resistance, Court accepted their request. That has triggered the children in them. They recently deleted data from Kyambogo University servers that they had access to as employees having refused to formally hand over when they resigned. All their actions speak to self-entitled individuals that are accusing Government officials of corruption yet their corrupt acts are proven. Three of them including the Minister’s son worked at both Civil Aviation Authority and Kyambogo University earning two salaries from two government bodies. That is why they are hiding under an anonymous journalist. I choose not to be anonymous.
Okello Innocent, Makerere University
Also, read; https://mrupdates.com/2021/09/textile-traders-demonstration-on-taxes-to-proceed/ and https://mrupdates.com/2021/09/cattle-raids-render-eu-multi-million-valley-dam-idle/
Discussion about this post