Uganda imposes internet blackout in pre-election crackdown

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Uganda has enforced an internet blackout ahead of Thursday’s elections in an ominous sign ahead of octogenarian President Yoweri Museveni’s bid to extend his 40-year rule.

Museveni, who has been a towering political figure in east Africa since seizing power in 1986, is seeking a seventh term in office in a rerun of the fraught 2021 contest that pitted him against former pop star Robert Kyagulanyi, known as Bobi Wine.

The internet blackout has been preceded by a sustained crackdown on dissent, with hundreds of activists detained and human rights groups and journalists muzzled, according to the UN human rights office.

In a letter to mobile phone operators and internet service providers, the Uganda Communications Commission said it was imposing the blackout on “strong recommendations” from security agencies and to prevent the spread of misinformation and incitement to violence.

“This temporary suspension is a precautionary intervention to ensure peace, protect national stability and prevent the misuse of communication platforms during a sensitive national exercise,” the letter said.

Wine’s National Unity Platform (NUP) accused Museveni of “cowardice”, and said the shutdown was intended to facilitate the “stealing of the election”.

Uganda imposed a similar blackout in 2021 when more than 100 people were killed in violent election protests, and Wine was eventually placed under house arrest. Museveni won those polls with 59 per cent in a vote that the US state department described as “fundamentally flawed”.

Human rights activists were quick to draw parallels this time between Uganda’s decision to restrict internet access and the week-long blackout that was imposed in neighbouring Tanzania during elections last October.

The brutal crackdown that followed in Tanzania saw security forces gun down hundreds, possibly thousands, of people, according to opposition groups and human rights reports, in what activists described as the east African country’s “Tiananmen Square moment”.

A UN human rights report ahead of Thursday’s elections in Uganda pointed to the wider erosion of freedom of expression and civil liberties in the region.

It said Ugandan security forces, including the police and military, “have unlawfully used firearms and live ammunition to disperse peaceful assemblies in the lead-up to the elections, and to carry out arbitrary arrests and prolonged pre-trial detentions, particularly targeting the political opposition”.

Museveni has presided over a sustained period of economic growth since coming to power after a five-year rebellion and retains strong support in some parts of the country. He has campaigned under the slogan “protecting the gains”.

His long-standing opponent Kizza Besigye is in jail facing treason charges.

Wine, who is perceived by far as the strongest among six other challengers, has campaigned in a flak jacket and helmet, championing generational change. Uganda has one of the youngest populations in the world with more than three quarters of the population under the age of 25. Wine’s message resonates strongly in urban areas.

The government originally denied speculation last week that it planned to impose an internet blackout, saying “claims suggesting otherwise are false, misleading and intended to cause unnecessary fear and tension among the public”.

Ahead of the shutdown, Wine called on his supporters to download a Bluetooth-based app to allow them to maintain communications through the blackout. The UCC did not say when internet connectivity would be restored.