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ugandaGender dynamics need to be addressed in communicationssurveillance in UgandaWomen of Uganda Network (WOUGNET)Dorothy Okello, Cleopatra Kanyunyuziand Winnie Mbabaziwww.wougnet.orgIntroductionIn 2000, Uganda was recognised as one of the mostliberal telecommunications markets in Africa andone in which the number of mobile subscribersexceeded fixed-line subscribers. 1 By 2013, it wasestimated that 39% of Ugandans were using mobilephones, and 17% were daily users of the internet –primarily accessing the internet via mobile devices. 2Uganda is a landlocked country in East Africa withan estimated population of 35.4 million. 3 Femalesrepresent 49.9% of the population, while 49% of thepopulation is 14 years old or younger. 4 This meansthat while Uganda’s population is fairly balancedby gender, it is also a very young population with apotential affinity for the use of information and communicationstechnologies (ICTs). Uganda has an ICTDevelopment Index (IDI) score of 1.81, which is belowthe world average IDI of 4.35. 5 IDI is a reflection ofthree ICT development drivers, namely, infrastructureand access to ICTs, level of ICT use in the society, andimpact resulting from efficient and effective ICT use.Policy and political backgroundUganda has witnessed tremendous growth in the ICTsector, with the expansion of ICT applications andservices including information generation and dissemination,mobile money, and innovative mobileapps – particularly in the agriculture and health sectors.The ICT policy and regulatory environment hasalso evolved from a focus on promoting widespread1 International Telecommunication Union. (2001). The Internet inan African LDC: Uganda Case Study. www.itu.int/ITU-D/ict/cs/uganda/uganda.html2 Unwanted Witness. (2014). The Internet:They are coming for ittoo! www.unwantedwitness.or.ug/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/internet-they-are-coming-for-it-too.pdf3 Uganda Bureau of Statistics. (2013). 2013 Statistical Abstract.www.ubos.org/onlinefiles/uploads/ubos/pdf%20documents/abstracts/Statistical%20Abstract%202013.pdf4 World Bank Database: Uganda. www.worldbank.org/en/country/uganda5 International Telecommunication Union. (2013). Measuring theInformation Society 2013. www.itu.int/en/ITU-D/Statistics/Pages/publications/mis2013.aspxaccess of ICTs to a focus on management of computer/mobileusage and internet freedoms. Examplesof Uganda’s ICT policies and regulations include theNational ICT Policy (2003), Access to Information Act(2005), National Information Technology AuthorityUganda Act (2009), Regulation of Interception ofCommunications Act (2010), Electronic SignaturesAct (2010), Computer Misuse Act (2011), ElectronicTransactions Act (2011), and Uganda CommunicationsCommission Act (2013).Other acts that have implications on ICT usage andsurveillance include the Anti-Terrorism Act (2002),which gives security officers powers to intercept thecommunications of a person suspected of terroristactivities and to keep such persons under surveillance;the Anti-Homosexuality Act (2014), whichoutlaws the use of “electronic devices which includeinternet, films, and mobile phones for purposes ofhomosexuality or promoting homosexuality”; andthe Anti-Pornography Act (2014), which mandatesa Pornography Control Committee to “expedite thedevelopment or acquisition and installation of effectiveprotective software in electronic equipment suchas computers, mobile phones and televisions for thedetection and suppression of pornography.” 6 TheUganda Communications Commission is also to conducta study with a view to ensuring “responsible useof social media and the internet” through regulationof social media content and internet usage. 7Communications surveillance in Uganda:Cause for concern?In March 2014, the media in Uganda were floodedwith stories of the fate of the country’s prime minister,Amama Mbabazi. According to one newspaper,an opposition politician was noted as having remarkedhow the prime minister “seems to be thefirst victim of a repressive law that clearly violatedthe right to privacy.” 8 The comments arose when pri-6 CIPESA. (2014). State of Internet Freedoms in East Africa 2014:An Investigation Into The Policies And Practices Defining InternetFreedom in East Africa. www.cipesa.org/?wpfb_dl=767 Lule, J. A. (2014, May 12). UCC to control internet, social mediacontent. New Vision. www.newvision.co.ug/news/655459-ucc-tocontrol-internet-social-media-content.html8 Kizza, B. (2014, March 5). Is Amama Mbabazi falling on his ownsword? The Observer. www.facebook.com/ugandaobserver/posts/479565065499306vate conversations between the prime minister andhis wife that had been allegedly secretly recordedwere played back at a caucus meeting of the rulingparty to which the prime minister belongs. The“repressive law” was the Regulation of Interceptionof Communications Act (RIC Act, 2010) which hadbeen tabled as a bill to the ruling party caucus byMbabazi himself while he was security minister in2007. The RIC Act provides for “lawful interceptionand monitoring of certain communications in thecourse of their transmission through a telecommunication,postal or any other related service orsystem in Uganda.” 9It should be noted that the Constitution of theRepublic of Uganda 1995 under Article 27 statesthat “[n]o person shall be subjected to unlawfulsearch of the person, home or other property of thatperson; or unlawful entry by others of the premisesof that person,” and that “[n]o person shall besubjected to interference with the privacy of hishome, correspondence, communications or otherproperty.” 10 Furthermore, Article 29(1)(a) states that“every person shall have the right to freedom of expressionand speech which includes freedom of thepress and other media.” In the absence of a dataprotection authority, complaints that arise out of issuesconcerning the abuse of privacy are currentlyhandled by the Uganda Human Rights Commission(UHRC). 11The incident involving the prime ministerhighlights why there is growing concern over thegovernance and regulation of communication surveillance,and how it is being used to infringe onone’s right to privacy in Uganda. Because this caseaffected a high-ranking Ugandan official, the questionis, how safe is the ordinary Ugandan? And froma gender activist perspective, what are the genderconcerns in the emerging policy and regulatory environment?Two recent studies on internet freedomsin Uganda were conducted by Unwanted Witnessand Collaboration on International ICT Policy in Eastand Southern Africa (CIPESA). While both studiesreview the communications surveillance environmentin Uganda, there is no specific focus on issuesof concern by gender. However, both studies didraise various concerns that are relevant to women’suse of the internet and social media.9 The Regulation of Interception of Communications Act, 2010.www.ulii.org/files/Regulations%20of%20Interception%20of%20Communications%20Act,%202010.pdf10 Privacy International. (2006). Legal Framework inUganda: Constitutional privacy framework. https://www.privacyinternational.org/reports/uganda/i-legal-framework11 Ibid.Enforced under the RIC Act, the mandatory subscriberidentity module (SIM) card registration, witha deadline of August 2013, is reported to have increasedthe opportunity for citizens to be subjectto secret surveillance and had a chilling effect onfree speech online. 12 In May 2014, an official fromthe Ugandan police’s Electronic Counter MeasuresDepartment noted that while collection, storageand sharing of users’ data through lawful meansis for ensuring citizens’ safety, the use of the SIMcard registration records had not been that effective.13 This was because some SIMs are not yetregistered or are only partially registered with aliasnames such as “gxp”. As such, it makes it hard forthe Ugandan police to track down some offendersusing SIM card records.As noted by the media platform UnwantedWitness, without a data protection law in place,Ugandans are not only exposed to surveillance bythe state but by anyone who can influence workersat telecom companies. 14 This was evident in thenumber of reported court hearings where phonecall printouts have been presented as criminalisingevidence to convict alleged offenders withoutquestioning the processes under which such informationwas acquired. In addition, anecdotalevidence seems to suggest that it is easier for malesto obtain call records when tracking suspected infidelityof their spouses. This would be in line withcultural traditions that permit polygamy, but absolutelyobject to any “infidelity” on the part offemales.Another key issue, raised by the CIPESA report,was that knowledge and skills about threats to onlinesafety appeared to be widely lacking, includingamongst bloggers, journalists and activists thatregularly used the internet. 15 As stated in the report,“many online users were prone to attacks and hacksinto their private communication due to the lack ofrequisite skills to secure their communication andinformation. Similarly, there seemed to be a generallack of knowledge on what constituted onlinefreedoms and what was needed to protect and topromote them. This partly explained why therewere few conversations on internet freedoms in theEast Africa region. A final plank in the deficiency inknowledge and skills was related to online ethicsamong internet users.” It is widely known that women’sICT skills significantly lag behind those of men,12 Unwanted Witness. (2014). Op. cit.13 Remarks by an official from the Uganda Police’s Electronic CounterMeasures Department during the Internet Freedom Forumattended by WOUGNET on 23 May 2014, Kampala, Uganda.14 Unwanted Witness. (2014). Op. cit.15 CIPESA. (2014). Op. cit.252 / Global Information Society Watch uganda / 253