Abraham Elayu, the General Manager Kyoga Veritas and Delta FM confirmed the closure of their stations. “We haven’t cleared our payment with UCC. So they witched us off.” Eyalu said.
Uganda Communications Commission-UCC has switched off three radio
stations in Soroti for alleged failure to pay their annual license fees.
They are Voice of Teso, which belongs to Captain
Mike Mukula, the NRM Vice chairperson Eastern region and Kyoga Veritas and
Delta FM that belong to Soroti Diocese.
Abraham Elayu, the General Manager Kyoga Veritas and Delta FM
confirmed the closure of their stations. “We haven’t cleared our payment with
UCC. So they witched us off.” Eyalu said.
According to Elayu, the UCC officials declined to enter into any
negotiations with management, saying they owe them more than Shillings 2
million.
“I tried telling the engineer from UCC not to
switch us off but the gentleman said that we could only talk if our debt was
below Shillings 1.9 million.”
He however, didn’t disclose how much money they
owe the telecommunication regulator. Simon Ocen, the Editor Voice of Teso
claimed they were switched off because of a poor signal.
“Our signal is somehow bad and it is being
rectified from Kampala.” Ocen said.
In addition to nonpayment of
their license fees, the closed stations haven’t paid their staff for months, which
has seen a number of them switch stations.
This month, Abdallah Aziz Ochogia, the manager
of Voice of Teso sacked 4 staff for allegedly sneaking out of the station to
sit interviews in an upcoming radio station in Bukedea district belonging to
the area Woman Member of parliament, Anita Among.
By the time of filing this story, UCC Engineers
had moved to Katakwi and Amuria districts to check on some radio stations in
the same operation.
Joseph Eigu Onyango
Freelancer