Kyotera Man Gets Two Year Jail Term for Operating a Radio Without UCC License

On his own guilty plea, Ronald Kiweewa (alias Selector Wagon) has been sentenced to spending two full years in Luzira prison for committing offences relating to installing and operating a radio station without obtaining the mandatory license from Uganda Communications Commission.

The 27-year-old was in October 2024 caught red handed broadcasting on 92.0 Crest FM in Kyotera Town Council yet he had no UCC authorization as required under Sections 27 & 28 of Uganda Communications Act. He had previously been warned but never stopped his illegal broadcasting, which prompted UCC enforcement officers to swing into action and enforce clear provisions of the law.

When his radio was switched off and equipment confiscated to subsequently be exhibited in court, Kiweewa went underground and resorted to using his Tik-Tok and X accounts to character-assassinate UCC officials who had been involved in cracking the whip on his radio. His public apology over the same weeks later, on realizing he was being cornered, didn’t diminish his liability.

He was arrested and locked up at Jinja Road Police Station where many suspects to be tried at the Makindye-based Standards, Utilities & Wildlife Court are always processed from. Upon being releazed on Police bond, Kiweewa went into hiding and UCC had to use phone tracking technology to have him re-arrested.

He subsequently was arraigned and formally charged before Chief Magistrate Gladys Kamasanyu at the Makindye-based court. This was at the beginning of June this year and the young man, husband and father of three has been on remand since that time.

The evidence UCC prosecutors submitted in Court overwhelmed Kiweewa Selector Wagon into owning up and pleading guilty. The Magistrate proceeded to convict him and the sentencing was proclaimed a few days ago at the same Makindye Court.

Her Worship Gladys Kamasanyu appropriately sentenced him for committing offences created under Sections 27 and 28 of Uganda Communication Act. The offences are installing & operating radio broadcasting apparatus without UCC license and authorization, and going ahead to conduct illegal broadcasting using the same equipment.

The Magistrate sentenced him to serving two years in prison for the first two offences and another 6 months for the 3rd offence, which is illegal broadcasting. The two sentences will be served concurrently, subject to the remand period Selector Wagon had already served since his re-arrest at the beginning of June.

Kamasanyu agreed with UCC prosecutors that Selector Wagon deserved the harsh sentence of two years because illegal broadcasting is these days a rampant offence in Uganda, meaning that there is need for deterrent sentencing. The same creates unfair competition between illegal operators on one hand and compliant licensed broadcasters on the other, contrary to law and good practice.

Illegal broadcasting, the Magistrate added, also deprives the state of legitimate revenue that has to be realized from licensing fees. It also harms innocent people who become victims of hate speech and disinformation or even defamation which illegal broadcasters like Selector Wagon engage in. Yet UCC can’t easily be of help because it’s generally hard to regulate, trace, account for or even reprimand operators the Commission didn’t license in the first place.

The Magistrate said there was need for harsh sentencing in order to deter other would-be future illegal broadcasters. Ordinarily, Selector Wagon would have ben sentenced to the maximum sentence of five years but the Chief Magistrate declined to do so on grounds that the young man was a remorseful convict who should be given chance to reform and become a good and law-abiding citizen once again.

He would even have walked away with mere caution but his crude decision to engage in hate speech targeting UCC officials, as opposed to owning up and being remorseful from the very start, made his case more complicate. Going into hiding after being releazed on Police bond, which required him to keep reporting himself to Police regularly, was equally unhelpful