I guess you all know Timothy Kalyegira as “that polished man that belongs to a rare elite class”. He is that endangered breed of Africans that will develop rashes on the sight of grammatical errors. The overnight critic who reviewed a 2 hour 4 minute Hollywood movie after watching the opening 20 minutes! Yes, that’s the guy who runs a Facebook page called Kampala Express.
What could ever go wrong for such a perfectionist? Well, in case you have not been following the trending stories, he has his glowing reputation gripped by unfamiliar thighs of sexual harassment. Unlike the Queen of Katwe screening, he can’t simply decide to walk away from this grip.
Short story writer Doreen Baingana took to her Facebook page and accused Kalyegira of sexually harassing her. She claims that Timothy made sexually suggestive statements to her. She alleges that he asked if he could take her nude photos and save his contact as “husband”. She made these allegations about two weeks ago and the story has been brewing quite a storm.
Photojournalist Kalyegira did not deny the allegations but rather defended himself saying, “It was just a passing joke between old close friends.”
“So I was just teasing Doreen in that context. She is someone I know to be easygoing and humorous and whom, I take it for granted, knows me, my family and my upbringing enough to know I would never take nude photos of people, let alone of friends,” reads part of his reaction post.
However in a twist of turn, Beingana has denied being close friends with Kalyegira and goes ahead to reaffirm her allegations. “Another of Timothy’s defenses is that we are good friends. I am quite surprised at the level of friendship he claims; I didn’t even have his number. Nevertheless, friendship is not a free pass for demeaning talk. In fact, in speaking to the broader issue, sex offenders more often than not know their victims,” reads her Facebook post in part.
The alleged sexual harassment happened at Uganda Museum on August 29, during the 2016 Writivism Literary festival where Baigana attended as a writer and Kalyegira as a photographer. The organisers of the festival have condemned the incident and are carrying out investigations. You can’t afford to walk out of this movie! Enjoy the popcorn as we await the findings of the investigations!