Uganda: A Cyber Warning From The Future?
At 7 o’clock on 13th January 2021, Uganda was plunged into a five day digital shutdown, with practically all internet access restricted across the country. All of a sudden 44 million Ugandans were thrown back into a pre-cyber age: unable to pay bills, send money to family or communicate with their friends. By the time the ban was lifted, it had wiped an estimated $9 million off the country’s economy.
This was not some freak technological accident or the work of a rogue state trying to undermine Uganda’s infrastructure. Rather, it was a deliberate decision by the country’s 76 year old President Yoweri Museveni on the eve of what would become his sixth presidential election victory.
Such an event was not unusual in Ugandan politics. Only the day before, Museveni’s administration had banned all social networking sites after a row with Facebook resulted in several pro-government accounts being taken down for malicious behaviour. In 2016 the government took similarly drastic action, banning all social media sites and internet money transfers in the build up to the general elections of that year.
The government claimed it took this action to prevent outside interference in Uganda’s elections. Independent observers, however, took a different view, denouncing it as a deliberate attempt to keep Ugandan citizens, and the rest of the world, in the dark about electoral fraud.
The election, which resulted in Museveni claiming 59% of the popular vote, was marred by what the US State Department called “many credible reports” of electoral irregularities. The Africa Elections Watch coalition, which sent 2,000 observers to Uganda, said it too had observed instances of electoral fraud. However, with no internet with which to access these reports, Ugandans were instead told by their president that the vote had been the “most cheating-free” in more than 50 years.
Opposition candidate Bobi Wine had proactively sought to uncover this fraud and in the weeks before the election unveiled an app called Uvote, which allowed citizens to document and upload proof of electoral irregularities and political violence. After the vote, Wine claimed that he had ample proof of electoral fraud but was left unable to communicate with his supporters due to the continued social media shutdown, which lasted until 10th February.
Social media, and the internet more widely, had proved instrumental to Uganda’s opposition in mobilising its supporters, who were largely young, urban and digitally connected. In shutting down this key line of communication, the Museveni government exhibited what the internet monitoring group Netblocks labelled a “textbook case of pre-meditated, pre-election internet blackout”.
Other critics went much further in their condemnation, with Joe Biden’s national security advisor Jake Sullivan calling the blackout “deeply concerning” and insisting that the eyes of the world would be watching Uganda from now on.
President Lungu is a close friend and ally of Uganda President Yoweri Museveni
Around the world, the internet shutdown has become a favoured tool of dictators and autocrats. The recent military coup in Myanmar is yet another example of this, with the army strangling internet communication to just 16% of usual levels in the lead up to widespread pro-democracy protests. For Zambia it should serve as a stark warning of the fragility of democracy in the digital age.
At home, the Patriotic Front government already seems poised to lash out at internet freedoms, resurrecting the oppressive Cyber Security Bill in order to prosecute what it deems unsavoury online communication. The bill has been condemned by a litany of civil society organisations, who argue that it would allow the government to intercept and censor any online messages which are critical of the PF.
The dangers of such a bill are brought into even sharper relief during the Covid-19 pandemic, when much of the campaigning for August’s elections will have to be conducted online. If passed, the bill would give the government practically unchecked control over this key forum, potentially silencing opposition voices and suppressing freedom of debate.
Uganda’s internet shutdown is proof that in the internet age, African democracies are just as vulnerable to autocratic measures as any military junta or one-party state. The close relationship between President Museveni and Zambia’s Edgar Lungu should serve as a further red flag to the dangers which Uganda’s elections forewarn.
As we enter the final six months before our general election, Zambians should remain vigilant in protecting their rights to information and freedom of expression. We should be on guard against the dangers to democracy in the digital age and prepared to defend our most powerful democratic platforms. Most of all, we should raise our voices in opposition to any government which threatens to curtail our freedom or ability to call out corruption and be heard.