Buganda has banned the music of singer Gereson Wabuyu, commonly known as Gravity Omutujju from being played on the kingdom’s radios and television.
Buganda Kingdom owns two radio stations, CBS FM 88.8 and 89.2 FM Emmanduso as well as BBS Teelefayina.
The kingdom also banned the songs for Lil Pazo, whose real name is Mukasa Yasin.
In a statement on Monday, Katikkiro Charles Peter Mayiga issued the decree.
“The Katikkiro has banned playing of Gravity Omutujju and Lil Pazo’s songs from being played on the airwaves of CBS FM and BBS TV for being vulgar,” Buganda Kingdom’s official social media pages said.
The development comes on the backdrop of a public outcry over the vulgarity of the songs for the two musicians.
Uganda National Cultural Center (UNCC) through its Vice Chairperson Phina Mugerwa Masanyalaze earlier this month summoned the two musicians on allegations of promoting vulgar content.
“The main purpose of this meeting is to have a dialogue about your vulgar content produced and promoted like Okwepicha, Enyama, Doozi and Omunio the latest release, Enkudi and Ensujju for Lil Pazo Lunabe. All this content doesn’t align with Uganda’s norms, culture and creative industry as a whole,” the December, 3 letter read in part.
In July, doctors under their umbrella body, the Uganda Medical Association (UMA) asked government to intervene and stop the release of a video by singer Gereson Wabuyi alias Gravity Omutujju.
They said the song’s video is tarnishing the medical profession’s image.
“There are pictures of which are trending on social media which are not looking good at all. In the video, some musician is holding something which is looking like a syringe and holding a woman bending down in a way which is very uncomfortable. This musician is putting on a clinical coat and a stethoscope and he’s portraying to be examining a woman who is bending down against him and it looks ugly against us,” UMA president, Dr. Herbert Luswata told journalists .
“A country without morals becomes hollow. The Bible has it that hollow cities have been destroyed like Sodom .. Much as those are spiritual, what we read is that a community or country that doesn’t follow rules it has set itself it is poised from anarchy. That’s why there must be laws, regulations and policies. They are made in such a way that they don’t encroach on people’s rights but balance between rights and responsibility. Whereas we have talked much about this, many broadcasters have failed to heed to our calls,” Thembo said.
“It is now becoming sort of cultural matter in the industry and seems to be competing against each other on who does it better. We can’t allow this to continue. Broadcasting such content is in direct contravention of minimum broadcasting rights. UCC has now decided to take action against those that have failed to abide by minimum broadcasting regulations.”
He said going forward, a all content to be broadcast must be passed through the Media Council to classify it.
“All broadcasters are hereby directed to ensure that all content, including music videos and audios is properly classified by media council before being aired in accordance with the Press and Journalist Act.”
UCC said failure to comply with the directive will see broadcasters’ licences revoked while others will be issued fines of up to 10% of their annual gross revenue.
