The right to privacy and internet freedom are facing enormous (growing) threats as Ugandan government starts to import surveillance equipment and setting up internet monitoring units among the various security agencies; according to the Unwanted Witness Report.

The report indicates that the State House Entebbe was the first to be equipped with surveillance equipment with capabilities of undertaking surveillance on over ten mobile phone subscribers at ago.

The report noted that in the bid to regulate activities in the cyber space the government enacted more than five (5) legislations in a period of less than four years including; the Computer Misuse Act, Electronic Signatures Act, Uganda Communications Act, Regulation to Interception of Communications’ Act, and Electronic Transactions Act among others. However, there’s a fear that the legal framework was drafted to undertake and strengthen the control over the internet other than facilitating the enjoyment of freedoms of expression, speech, association, assembly and access to information online which rights are not only guaranteed by the 1995 constitution of the republic of Uganda but also provided under various international human rights instruments to which Uganda is party to.

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