The Office Of the National Chairman (ONC) manager Hajjat Hadijah Namyalo Uzeiye has silenced self seekers Frank Gashumba and Lwengo LCV Chairperson Ibrahim Kitata, after winning a case they filed to claim ownership and copyrights of the popular slogan ‘Jajja Tova Ku Main’ slogan, which has since taken over social media platforms in regards to endorsing president Yoweri Kaguta Museveni for the next term of office.

This comes after Denis Birungi, the Assistant Registrar of Copyright at the Uganda Registration Services Bureau (URSB), dismissed an application that had been filed by Gashumba claiming copyright ownership of the said campaign slogan.

In his ruling dated October 18th, 2023, Birungi struck out and dismissed Gashumba’s Registration for Application of Copyright No. UG/C/2023/89, noting that according to analysis made by URSB, the Applicant (Gashumba) is not the original author and cannot apply for registration of the disputed works.

“…. I take note of the fact that the disputed works are works of a political character. They are intended for political mobilization for the President and the National Resistance Movement (NRM) and have become synonyms with the campaign messaging of the NRM and its youth supporters,” Birungi stated in his ruling.

He added that; “While there is no evidence to conclusively determine the author of the works, there is sufficient evidence on a balance of probability, to prove that the Applicant could not have been the author.”

Birungi also noted, among other things that; “There is no evidence to prove that the 1st Objector (Namyalo) Commissioned the Applicant (Gashumba) to develop the disputed works.”

He further observed in his ruling that; “The 2nd Objector (Kittata) has no copyright in the disputed works, the 1st Objector (Namyalo) has not proved ownership/authorship of the works and that the available evidence is insufficient to determine the author of the disputed works.”

Following his ruling and objection to the application for registration of Copyright No. UG/C/2023/89, Birungi advised each party in the matter to bear their own cost.

Genesis Of Matter

The dispute at hand started a few months ago after Gashumba accused Namyalo of allegedly depriving him of a multimillion deal he had scooped to print campaign materials for President Museveni that included Caps and T-Shirts, ahead of the 2026 general elections, with the slogan ‘Omalako Jajja, Tova Ku Main’.

Gashumba, who is a self-claimed NRM mobilizer, claimed that he had coined the slogan ‘Omalako Jajja, Tova Ku Main’, which was meant to urge Museveni to run for another term in 2026, but that Namyalo had used underhand methods to snatch the slogan from him, on top of discrediting him within the Party, allegations the latter vehemently denied.

He claimed then that shortly after coining the slogan, he had opened up a printer, bought machines and started printing T-shirts and caps with the said slogan, only to get shocked soon thereafter to learn that Namyalo had given the deal to someone else.

“I came up with the idea for the slogan and the campaign materials. You saw all the pull-up banners and billboards that were put all over Kampala; that was my idea,” Gashumba said in an interview with the media.

“I did all that with one target in mind; the elections of 2026. I realized that in case President Museveni contested again for the presidency in 2026, I would have the capacity to print at least 5 million campaign T-shirts. However, she (Namyalo) betrayed me and gave my business to someone else,” he added, further alleging that Namyalo had instead given his business deal worth over Shs400M to someone called Ephraim, an employee at the ONC.

Following Gashumba’s allegations however, Namyalo revealed to this website that whereas it is true the deal had been initially given to him, it was later given to someone else after he (Gashumba) failed to deliver the quality of T-shirts that had been agreed upon in time, on top of using a wrong slogan.

“We allowed him to produce samples of what we wanted, however, he not only printed the wrong slogan on the t-shirts but the samples were also of substandard quality compared to what we had agreed upon with him,” officials at ONC told this website on Tuesday.

It was after this standoff between them that Gashumba filed his application with the URSB for registration of copyright for the disputed slogan, although the latest developments indicate that his application has since been trashed by the Bureau, and all his hopes of laying a claim of ownership on the disputed campaign slogan completely dashed!