The integrity of digital policies and political participation in Uganda: a tale of dissent and digital repression?

ABSTRACT

In response to an unresponsive government, citizens in Uganda have reacted by constructing their own spaces of participation from below. These bottom-up participatory spaces help citizens to escape the repression of regimes and counter their elimination by political representatives and administrative elites from decision-making processes. However, the participatory instruments from below seemingly threaten the regime's survival and the elites’ hierarchies. Consequently, the use of bottom-up instruments in Uganda has often faced severe restrictions and control from the state through the use of online and digital communication laws. What is the level of integrity and fairness of digital policies and new online and digital communication laws in Uganda? The article profiles the monitoring of online instruments of participation by the state, and discusses the views of Ugandans towards the integrity and implementation of digital policies in Uganda.

KEYWORDS:

• Political participation
• digitalisation
• e-participation
• integrity
• democratic regression
• responsiveness

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 The social characteristics of the 70 experts that successfully completed and returned the survey were as follows: 31 per cent females and 69 per cent males; 29 per cent were aged 18–29, 52 per cent were aged 30–41, 18 per cent were aged 42–53, and 2 per cent were aged 54–65; 48 per cent were married, 44 per cent were not yet married, 2 per cent were widowed, and 6 per cent were divorced; finally, only approximately 4 per cent had no university education, while 96 per cent had.

2 Here and in the following analysis, the middle category and the missing values contribute to 100%.

3 The Computer Misuse (Amendment), 2022 says that ‘whoever violates the laws herein shall be jailed for 5 years in detention, pay a fine of shs16 million or serve both if convicted’ (see Friday, 14 October 2022, New Vision).

4 As cited in the New Vision of Friday, 14 October, Robert Ssempala is the executive director of the Human Rights Network of Journalists.