{"id":21201,"date":"2026-01-13T17:34:07","date_gmt":"2026-01-13T17:34:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/21201\/"},"modified":"2026-01-13T17:34:07","modified_gmt":"2026-01-13T17:34:07","slug":"uganda-shuts-down-internet-and-orders-rights-groups-to-halt-work-ahead-of-election-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/21201\/","title":{"rendered":"Uganda shuts down internet and orders rights groups to halt work ahead of election \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ugandan authorities cut internet access and limited mobile services \u200dacross the country on Tuesday, two days before an election in which president Yoweri Museveni will stand for a contentious seventh term after four decades in \u200dpower.<\/p>\n

The Uganda Communications Commission ordered mobile service providers to shut down public internet connections from 3pm Irish time on Tuesday in order to curb \u201cmisinformation, disinformation, electoral fraud and related risks\u201d, according to a letter seen by Reuters.<\/p>\n

Security forces have detained hundreds of opposition supporters in the run-up to \u200cthe election and repeatedly fired live bullets and tear gas at campaign events in support of Museveni\u2019s leading challenger, pop star Bobi Wine<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe UCC acknowledges the \u2060operational challenges this directive may impose and appreciates your full co-operation in upholding national stability during this sensitive \u200cperiod,\u201d \u200bthe UCC \u200dsaid in the letter dated Tuesday and addressed to Licensed Mobile Operators and Internet Service Providers.<\/p>\n

The 81-year-old Museveni, who came to power in 1986 after leading a five-year rebellion, is Africa\u2019s third-longest ruling head of state.<\/p>\n

He has changed the constitution twice to remove age and term \u2060limits, and his dominance of Ugandan institutions means there is little prospect of an election upset in the East African \u2060country of 46 million people, political analysts say.<\/p>\n

Uganda\u2019s internet went out at 6pm local time, a Reuters witness confirmed.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Bobi Wine: The People\u2019s President \u2013 Uganda\u2019s charismatic \u2018president of the ghetto\u2019 under pressureOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

The government also early on Tuesday ordered two local rights groups to cease \u200doperations before Thursday\u2019s election, which the United Nations Human Rights Office says is taking place in an atmosphere of repression and intimidation.<\/p>\n

The two groups had denounced the alleged arbitrary detention and torture of opposition supporters and journalists.<\/p>\n

The state-run National Bureau for NGOs said in a letter to one of the groups, Chapter Four Uganda, that it was found to be involved in activities \u201cprejudicial\u201d to Uganda\u2019s security and \u201cshould cease operations … with immediate effect\u201d.<\/p>\n

Robert Ssempala, who heads the Human Rights Network for Journalists-Uganda (HRNJ-U), told Reuters he had received \u200cthe same letter ordering his \u200corganisation to stop operating.<\/p>\n

Stephen Okello, head of the state NGO bureau, confirmed to Reuters that he had written the letters.<\/p>\n

The UN Human Rights Office said in a report on \u200cFriday that Uganda\u2019s police and military had used live ammunition to disperse peaceful rallies, carried out arbitrary detentions and abducted opposition supporters in advance of \u2060the vote.<\/p>\n

A Ugandan government spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment on the report.<\/p>\n

Mr Museveni\u2019s government has defended the security forces\u2019 actions as a justified response to what it called lawless conduct by opposition supporters. \u2013 Reuters<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ugandan authorities cut internet access and limited mobile services \u200dacross the country on Tuesday, two days before an…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":21202,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[58],"tags":[2563,153,4422],"class_list":{"0":"post-21201","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-uganda","8":"tag-bobi-wine","9":"tag-uganda","10":"tag-united-nations-un"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21201","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21201"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21201\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21202"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21201"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21201"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21201"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}