Way back in the late 20th Century, President Yoweri Museveni raised hope, especially among the old that had not experienced meaningful and effective democracy in the latter reign of the colonialists and most of the post-independence when he mobilised mostly refugees and some Ugandans to wage a five-year long bush war in the Luwero Triangle of Buganda.
He made democracy and freedom the clarion call to guide his onslaught. Many young people joined his struggle, hoping that it would usher in a new era of democracy, freedom and opportunities. In fact, President Museveni, soon after ousting those he called “swine” wrote a book “The Mustard Seed: The Struggle for Freedom and Democracy in Uganda”, which showed that such struggle is very costly in terms of human life and required the sacrifice and commitment of those involved in it.
Unfortunately, soon President Museveni started to organise his one-man system to violate the very things his struggle aimed to usher in and sustain in Uganda: freedom and democracy. The two more or less became a joint anathema to him in his committed determination to retain power at all costs. Virtually all types of freedom became threatened. One of those freedoms was the freedom to express disquiet and discontent through legal peaceful demonstrations as enshrined in the 1995 Constitution which he presided over. Another freedom was the freedom to debate public issues without fear or favour. The military, which in the past was confined to the military barracks soon occupied the police space and even took over the command of the Uganda Police Force. The aim was to ensure that the State completely controlled the movement, actions and thinking of Ugandans.
Meanwhile, the traditional political parties were eventually given the semblance of freedom to engage in political activities but without opportunity to capture power from President Museveni and his National Resistance Movement (NRM). The political parties were used to project the President and his NRM as receptive to political competition yet in practice meaningful political participation in the country by all Ugandans was detested. In fact, politics became so militarised that it became politico-military. Even the government and its institutions became greatly infested with military personnel despite the fact that the President allowed civic elections and the civic practice of appointments to different positions.
One thing is true. The Uganda population has over the last 38 years become dominated in numbers by the youth, who have grown up under the quasimilitary reign of President Museveni. The recent National Census held in June 2024 showed that the population is supersonically growing youthful. However, the current governance of the country has tended to marginalise the youth within the country, leave only domestic slavery to the majority or export thousands into foreign slavery particularly in the Middle East.
All effort is made to divide and rule the country, which is no doubt a country of youth yearning to have life livable but are increasingly marginalised. They do not see any freedom from disease, ignorance and poverty because these are becoming more and more the mainstay of the country despite spiralling production of graduates in our numerous universities.
Because debating issues publicly has been almost banned in the country – even at universities – the hopeless and hapless youth have turned to social media to seek freedom of expression, democracy and opportunities, which the powers that be can never provide even if given 100 years more to govern. Social media has not yet influenced the youth enough to cause them to bring about change. The youth have organised a demonstration against the corrupt at Parliament building on 23rd July 2024 as a consequence of President Tibuhaburwa Museveni’s declaration of war against the corrupt.
According to the youth of Uganda, they decided to demonstrate at Parliament on 23rd July 2024, ostensibly to advance the President’s struggle against corruption. They reason that the Speaker of Parliament admitted that she is corrupt and even declared that there is nothing wrong with people stealing public money as long as they share their loot. However, the President has warned his youthful supporters against the corrupt. He earlier addressed the nation and declared that he would crush the demonstrators. He believed some politicians and foreigners were inciting the youth. The question is: Will the youth be able to convert social media into a political weapon against corruption and use it as a democratic tool to benefit the citizens of Uganda?
The Government is not entirely politically sensitive to all social media. On the eve of the 2021 elections, the government temporarily blocked access to all social media platforms, even app stores, to stop downloads of VPNs. The internet was entirely shut down on election day, allegedly in the interest of national security. While the internet, social media, and access to app stores were later restored after a 28-day suspension, Facebook remains blocked indefinitely. DataReportal’s “Digital 2024: Uganda” shows that there were 33.34 million active cellular mobile connections in early 2024, which was 67.7% of the total population of the country. This means most of the people of Uganda are interconnected via the cellular mobile phone, although 27.1% lived in urban areas.
Cabinet in May 2013 directed the Ministry of Information and Communications Technology (MoICT) to ensure that every Government Ministry, Department and Agencies (MDAs) opens a Twitter and Facebook account to improve communication with the Public. Accordingly, the Government is committed to engaging effectively with its citizens in a meaningful, accountable, responsive and equitable way.
There are many stakeholders in social media, apart from the youth, who are concerned about corruption, injustice and the erosion of freedom, democracy and various rights in Uganda. These include the broad civil society, intellectuals, professionals, academics, researchers and policymakers, to name but a few. However, the majority of these stakeholders have not taken to using social media to pursue their rights or to contribute to the political and democratic development of Uganda.
For Kenya, social media continues to be used to sow the seeds of democracy and to unite the different stakeholders in the struggle for different freedoms, justice and equity and against corruption. It is likely, however, that future confrontations between the powers that be and the people of Uganda will be between the youth and the State starting 23rd July 2024. Will the struggle by the youth against corruption and for democracy, human rights and justice end with confrontation between them and the powers that be on 23rd July 2024 when they converge, as planned, on the Parliament of Uganda? Well, time, the ultimate judge, will tell. Government has armed itself to the teeth to confront the country’s youth. If the youth continue to respect fear, it is unlikely such confrontation will occur. However, most writers say that social media has been good for democracy and has had important positive and negative effects on politics and society as a whole. For God and My Country
The writer (Prof. OweyeghaAfunaduula) is a retired university lecturer and environmentalist
