Kalema Lawrence
The Government of Uganda last Thursday ordered for the immediate blockage of all Internet services by all Internet Service providers as the country went into polls to decide for the next president and respective members of parliament.
First it was Social Media platforms that were blocked a day before but still a number of users bypassed the firewalls by using Virtual Private Networks (VPNs) and this might be the reason the government came up with such a measure.
However, as the main reason why the internet was put down not until 2 days after announcing the presidential election results, different people have come out to give their opinions on why it was as such.
As many think it was a measure by the government in joint with the electoral commission to be with only one source of electoral information to avail to the voters (to avoid manipulated results that may cause mislead), there is a section that believes there was a hidden agenda behind this that is none other than vote rigging.
Meanwhile, soon after the internet was restored today morning of Monday 18th, there has been a variety of information circulating including the presidential results from over 1000 polling stations from Kampala, Mukono and Wakiso districts that were left out in the national tally that the electoral commission (EC) has verified to be true, several declaration forms of contradicting results from those presented by the EC and videos of already ticked votes in favor on one candidate among others.
The government is yet to restore social media platforms including Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.
