Wednesday evening, 13th of January 2021 as the nation was preparing for a highly anticipated election the following day, doom befell internet users as they came to realize that the internet had been SHUTDOWN!
It should be noted that many of the Ugandans had got ready to follow the election through the internet, and the National Unity Platform had actually created an application, U-vote, which was to be used to follow up with the election. The election day came and voting went on smoothly amidst the internet shutdown.
The officials came out to confirm the shutdown, which they said was because they anticipated chaos during and after the election and it was mainly to be fueled by the internet thus leading to its shutdown. Ofwono Opondo, who's the media spokesperson for NRM said the internet would be back if the situation remained calm.
The five days of internet shutdown indeed affected many people, including businesses, the media and ordinary people. It surely showed how the digitalization has eaten up the world. However, earlier today at around 10a.m, the internet was put back but SOCIAL MEDIA remained closed.
While addressing the media, minister for ICT Peter Odong clarified on the issue. "We initially shutdown the internet because of the threats we had about the disruption of the voting process. It's now back and people can go on with their jobs. However, we're yet to put back Social media as we still monitor it and incase we're sure all is well, we'll be putting it back as well."
The minister also warned those using VPN to bypass the tax and access Social media, saying they're monitoring them too and will be handled as well. From Nowviba, we want to officially welcome y'all from the internet lockdown a.k.a "ensiko"????
