Uganda military shuts Tanzanian billionaire Rostam Aziz's Nation Media Group outlets

When Rostam Aziz paid for a controlling 54.08 percent stake in Nation Media Group in March 2026, ending the Aga Khan's 66-year ownership of East Africa's most influential media house, one of the risks nobody talked about publicly was this: that the man Uganda's president sees as heir apparent would decide, four months later, to shut it all down.

That is what happened on the night of June 27, 2026.

General Muhoozi Kainerugaba, Uganda's Chief of Defence Forces and the son of President Yoweri Museveni, posted on X at 1:07am that NTV Uganda and the Daily Monitor were being shut down, effective immediately. Armed security personnel were deployed at Nation Media Group's headquarters in Namuwongo, Kampala, and at its broadcast facility at the Kampala Serena Hotel before midnight, sealing staff inside and preventing others from entering. By 5:00am on June 28, NTV Uganda and Spark TV had gone off air. Viewers across Uganda were met with blank screens displaying the message: "Video unavailable." KFM and Dembe FM also appeared to have gone silent. The National Association of Broadcasters confirmed that at least six publishing and broadcasting outlets under the NMG umbrella had been shuttered.

"Mzee has approved my plan to close both NTV and Monitor," Muhoozi wrote, using the Swahili honorific for his father. "We are moving immediately! From now on ALL bad stories about Uganda have to be cleared by my office!"

He followed with a declaration that went considerably further. "In Uganda, I DO NOT believe in a free press! The press should be guided by cadres of the revolution." And then: "I have the power in Uganda to shut down ANY media house I want to. I have had this power since 2017."

At the time of writing, neither the Uganda People's Defence Forces, the Uganda Police Force nor the Uganda Communications Commission had issued a single statement citing a legal basis for the operation. The UCC's spokesperson Ibrahim Bbosa told media that a statement was being prepared. No regulatory notice, no broadcast licence violation, no court order preceded the deployment. The General posted on social media. Soldiers appeared. The screens went dark.

The shutdown affects media properties that NMG Uganda describes as the country's most consequential independent news organisation. NTV Uganda, launched in December 2006, is one of Uganda's largest private broadcasters. The Daily Monitor, now 20 years old, is the country's largest independent daily newspaper and has been the most persistent journalistic check on the Museveni government throughout his four decades in power. Spark TV, KFM, Dembe FM, Ennyanda newspaper and the Nation Courier all sit within the NMG Uganda portfolio. The group employs more than 500 people in Uganda.

This is not the first time NMG Uganda has faced state coercion. In May 2013, police raided the Daily Monitor and Dembe FM after the newspaper published a letter allegedly linking senior government officials to a plan to position Muhoozi as Museveni's successor. The premises were sealed for more than a week. In February 2007, barely two months after NTV Uganda launched, the broadcaster was forced off air by the government following criticism of its news coverage. Over the years, Museveni has repeatedly criticised the Daily Monitor, at one point calling it an "enemy and evil newspaper."

What distinguishes the June 2026 operation from all its predecessors is stated by its own protagonist. This shutdown was not announced by a regulatory body or ordered by a court. It was declared by a general on social media at 1:07 in the morning, framed not as a legal action but as a personal exercise of power. "Both NTV and Monitor will not re-open without my permission," Muhoozi wrote. Muhoozi is not the president. He holds no civilian portfolio. The constitutional framework governing Uganda's media is administered by the UCC, not the Chief of Defence Forces. None of that appeared to matter.

The timing is layered. Museveni was sworn in on May 12, 2026, for a seventh consecutive term at the Kololo Independence Grounds in Kampala. In the weeks that followed, Muhoozi has issued a series of directives and orders typically reserved for heads of state, escalating his visible consolidation of authority in ways that have accelerated since his father's latest inauguration. Earlier in June, he moved against Erias Lukwago, the attorney representing jailed opposition leader Kizza Besigye, having Lukwago taken from his home and charged with a treason-related offence after Lukwago sought to hold the general accountable for his alleged role in violating Besigye's rights. Besigye himself was seized in Nairobi in 2024 and remains detained on charges his supporters describe as politically motivated.

Andrew Mwenda, the journalist and Muhoozi confidante, signalled on X that talks on reopening were underway. "I have just held discussions with Gen Muhoozi Kainerugaba and we, as leaders of PLU, have agreed that we shall reopen both Daily Monitor and NTV soon," Mwenda wrote, referring to the Patriotic League of Uganda, the political organisation Muhoozi founded and is now restructuring. Muhoozi himself added that consultations were being held with international allies in the UK and Europe before any final decision, and that the matter would be taken to his father for final approval. NMG had not issued an official response to the reopening discussion at the time of writing.

The situation places Aziz, the Tanzanian businessman whose acquisition of NMG was completed barely four months ago, at the centre of a constitutional and press freedom crisis he did not engineer but will need to navigate. Aziz built his fortune through Taifa Group's mining, aviation, media and energy interests in Tanzania and acquired NMG with a stated commitment to modernising the group and maintaining its editorial independence. He told journalists when the deal was announced that his acquisition was purely commercial and that his relationships with regional political leaders were personal, not business, matters. Within four months of completing that acquisition, the military chief of one of the four countries in which NMG operates has deployed armed soldiers to its offices and declared that the outlets will not reopen without his personal permission.

Uganda ranked 143rd out of 180 countries on the Reporters Without Borders World Press Freedom Index prior to the June 28 shutdown, placing it in the very serious category. The East Africa Journalists Federation condemned the crackdown. The Institute for Justice and Accountability Uganda described it as a violation of constitutional protections on freedom of the press. The National Association of Broadcasters said it was seeking clarification. Press freedom organisations across East Africa and internationally issued statements of concern. The UCC's statement, when it finally arrives, will be read very carefully.