Some of the celebrity ambassadors Development Channel signed to market their brand.
As is the norm for many businesses to tap into celebrities’ huge followings through offering them ambassadorial roles, Development Channel – a scheme whose operations many have termed fraudulent – needed a few Ugandan celebrities to capitalize on their social media presence and personal brands to sell/ market its products; a no dropout tablet and smartphone.
The company reached out to a few musicians, actors, comedians and television personalities and signed them up as brand ambassadors for a period of three months but renewable after the probation.
According to one of the celebrities who asked not to be mentioned, the company gave them a signup fee of Shs2m, a no dropout tablet, with which they would pose for photos and appear within photos and during some of their public appearances. These celebs were also promised a car each and a monthly stipend of shs2m. Not a bad deal!
Development Channel signed eight celebrities as brand ambassadors; comedian Patrick Salvado Idringi, singers- Fik Fameica, Ykee Benda, the Nabwisos (Mathew and Eleanor), Sheila Gashumba, Douglas Lwanga and Roger Mugisha – a star-studded lineup.
When she put ink to paper, Gashumba was waxing lyrical about how the company was here to transform the economy and kick poverty out of Uganda.
“Africa has been waiting for something of this kind of initiative. Economic war is the deepest and the most influential social war every African should support. Am so grateful to Development Channel for the idea and the initiative,” she told her Facebook ‘fam’ (of course holding her tab.)
However, trouble came when the time for Development Channel to deliver on their promises arrived.
The boss, Charles Lambert began coughing excuse after excuse, but the celebrities continued their vigorous marketing and brand promotion as stipulated in their contracts. Not only did the company fail to pay their monthly Shs2m stipend, the branded Toyota Prado vehicles they were promised were never handed to them.
“We saw some nice Prados in the parking lot, but we later learnt that the man had just hired the vehicles from somewhere. And as we were waiting for the official handover, we woke up to the news that police had impounded the cars and that the boss was in trouble. I was puzzled,” one ambassador said.
He added that Lambert (the boss), “talked big” about how he was here to change the world but his promises got unrealistic and this started to raise red flags about the credibility and honesty of the man they were working for.
“The man told us he was to give the shareholders (people who bought tablets) $100 dividends per month. Then he started saying the money will be growing with time so will start with $20. He kept changing goal posts, so I lost morale,” they added.
Dehumanising treatment
Often times, they would be invited to different parts of the country to entice unsuspecting Ugandans into joining the reigning “economic war” by buying the tablet phone at over Shs960,000 and get a guaranteed monthly return of $100 (Shs380,000) for a lifetime.
Not a bad move! But whenever the powerful, popular celebrities graced the presence of the main man, they would get stripped of their ‘massape!’ Some of those we talked to, claimed that he (Lambert) treated them like kids, often ordering them to sit on the floor of his Itiri House office in Luzira while he spoke.
According to insiders, the ambassadors had strict orders not to interrupt the boss (Chairman), could not answer phones (which would have to be in silence or off anyway) and would not move out – even to ease themselves. Lambert – just like another philanthropist – Bryan White, openly ordered the celebrities around, barked at them and liked to impose his authority just to rub it in that he is the ‘boss.’
Impending lawsuit
It is for the above reasons that one of the ambassadors is dragging the maverick Chairman – as he is referred to by his employees, to court. In an exclusive interview with Matooke Republic, the ambassador expects his suit filed by Thursday next week.
“I am suing him for breach of contract. I can’t work for three months not have received my pay,” he says. It should be noted that the Development Channel boss is already battling a court case in which he was arrested on August 23, 2018, for running a Ponzi scheme after the drivers of 73 Prado SUVs he had hired went months without pay and were threatening to burn his Bukotobased offices.
According to them, Lambert owed them over Shs237million.
Charles Lambert (in yellow shirt) with Tamale Mirundi at a recent event
Development Channel boss speaks out
In a chat with Matooke Republic, the braggart Chairman instead accused the ambassadors of breaching terms and conditions after they decided to work from home during the month of August, as opposed to the company’s offices as agreed.
Lambert added that those who claim not to have been paid were “liars” wondering “how they could have worked for this long without any pay.” “We were attacked by some demons and we’ve managed to fight them off.
This organisation has over 10,000 beneficiaries, so the few who are rushing to the media should not spoil it for tens of thousands out there. They are just upset, and were trying to find ways of settling everything,” he said.
Abrupt meeting According to sources within Development Channel, Lambert called an urgent meeting with the ambassadors on Wednesday after learning that Matooke Republic was working on this story.
Although by press time, the agenda of the closed-door meeting had not been disclosed to the ambassadors, an insider told us that the meeting was meant to convince and make new promises about the ambassadors’ pending payment.