Govt ordered to table directives behind pre-election internet shutdown

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The government has been ordered to table a copy of the directives that triggered the internet shutdown in the run-up to the January 2026 General Elections.

Public Accounts Committee (Central) vice chairperson Gorreth Namugga issued the directive on Tuesday (March 10) during an engagement with officials from the Ministry of Information, Communications Technology and National Guidance, led by permanent secretary (PS) Aminah Zawedde.

“Those are the documents we are waiting for before we end today’s engagement. You will have to submit those directives on the shutdown and the re-opening, whichever you call it,” Namugga ordered.

Two days before polling on January 13, the Uganda Communications Commission (UCC) ordered all licensed mobile network operators (MNOs) and internet service providers (ISPs) to suspend public internet access, the sale and registration of new SIM cards, and outbound data roaming services to One Network Area countries.

UCC executive director Nyombi Thembo argued that the move would help avert potential polling chaos arising from misinformation.

The blackout paralysed social media, web browsing and mobile money services, a move Members of Parliament (MPs) on Tuesday described as not only high-handed but also deeply disruptive to the economy.

According to Uganda’s Banking Sector Report 2023, the number of registered mobile money customers stood at 43.4 million, reflecting a 60 percent growth over five years.

The report further states that in the year under review, the country recorded 6.4 billion mobile money transactions worth sh227.5 trillion, a figure expected to have grown significantly by the time the last polls were held.

“The communication that we are giving to you as an institution that is in charge of communication and ICT, I mean, is the dissatisfaction of the public about what went on during the electoral period in regard to the transfer of money. To some people, that was business lost,” Namugga argued.

Worse still, Bugiri Municipality MP Asuman Basalirwa observed that internet shutdowns have become routine whenever elections approach.

“In 2016, mobile money services were disrupted. In 2021, the same thing, 2026, it is happening. At the risk of being speculative, chairperson, 2031, it is likely to happen,” Basalirwa cited.

Ministry speaks out

However, Zawedde defended the ministry, saying the order originated from an inter-agency security committee, which then informed the regulator to take the necessary action.

She later handed over to Geoffrey Agoi, the commissioner for ICT Infrastructure and a board member of UCC.

“Some of the accusations which are being asked in my humble view would have been directed to UCC. We did discuss this issue of shutting down the internet at the board level. We were actually informed that the ED UCC did receive a formal directive from the National Security Council, and we did actually see the letter itself in that respect,” Agoi alluded.

“But of course, I do not now remember exactly who was the chair and that kind of thing. But that directive was there, which actually empowered the executive director to subsequently inform the telecom operators to go ahead and do the switch off,” he added.

Mobile money operations

Furthermore, he noted that while social media was intended to be shut down immediately, mobile money services allegedly suffered collateral damage due to technical complexities.

“The other services we have mentioned, the mobile money and others, were not supposed to be affected, but because of the technicalities. And also, with operators themselves, some operators, like Airtel, I think, had issues implementing that directive. There were issues of mobile money in Airtel, specifically, but MTN, I think, had no major issues around that in that respect. So, these were actually technical issues that resulted from the directive which the commission did implement,” he clarified.