Vision Group (NVL) has announced that Don Wanyama, the senior press secretary to the president, will take over as its new chief executive, replacing Robert Kabushenga.
Mr Wanyama has always been mentioned as one of the frontrunners for the job following the surprise resignation of Mr Kabushenga in late January. He will take over as chief executive on 30 April.
The notice by the company, whose full name is the New Vision Printing and Publishing Company Ltd, to the Uganda Securities Exchange said that its board of directors had appointed Mr Wanyama as “managing director/chief executive officer”.
The more likely scenario is that the appointment was made by President Yoweri Museveni — the government holds a controlling stake in Vision Group — and then rubber stamped by the board. The same applies to Mr Kabushenga’s resignation: he and the company announced that it was his decision but subsequent reports said he had been fired by the president.
The appointment marks a triumphant return to the media for Mr Wanyama. Before joining State House, he was the managing editor for daily editions at the Daily Monitor, part of the Nation Media Group, between May 2013 and January 2015. He left the Monitor in acrimonious circumstances, the company saying it had dismissed him for allegedly okaying an opinion poll without approval from senior managers.
The claim was that the poll was favourable to the president and gave him ammunition as he manoeuvred to shake off a primary challenge in his NRM party from his former ally and prime minister, Amama Mbabazi. Mr Wanyama disputed Monitor’s stated reason for his departure, instead blaming internal intrigue and an “anti-Museveni” bias at the newspaper.
Whatever the case, Mr Wanyama was a few months later snapped up by the same political party that had featured in his exit from the Monitor, taking on the role of special media assistant in the office of the NRM chairman, who at the time was Mr Museveni. A year later, in May 2016, he joined the State House after a rejoinder he wrote and was published in the New Vision — in response to remarks made by a senior US administration official criticising Mr Museveni — impressed the president.
Mr Wanyama has “15 years’ experience in media and communication,” Vision Group’s notice said. A teacher by training, he joined the New Vision as sub editor before moving to the Daily Monitor in 2008 to work as an assistant chief sub editor. He was promoted to chief sub editor in 2010.
Perhaps the two most important responsibilities of whoever is in charge at Vision Group are the day-to-day running of the media company, undoubtedly the largest in the country, and ensuring that its coverage does not run afoul of top government officials, particularly those close to the president.
To qualify the second role, the Vision Group is seen not just as a counterbalance to the several media critics of the president and his government – especially the influential Daily Monitor and NTV, both owned by the NMG, and persistent gadflies of Mr Museveni – but also acts as a propaganda arm of Mr Museveni and his government. One of the alleged reasons behind Mr Kabushenga’s firing was sanctioning a series of investigations that shone a less-than-flattering light on the implementation of certain government programmes, moreover funded by a European Union vehicle seen [by the president and those close to him] as sympathetic to the opposition.
Mr Wanyama’s role in the State House likely means that he will immediately take to his work overseeing the promotion of the president and his government. It is his day-to-day running of such a large company that remains to be tested.
“He holds a bachelor’s of education degree from Makerere University and a master’s of arts in journalism and communication from the same university,” reads Vision Group’s statement. “He also attended managerial courses at Strathmore Business School in Nairobi, Kenya and Poynter Institute in Florida, USA.”
