National Unity Platform (NUP) president Robert Kyagulanyi Ssentamu aka Bobi Wine has claimed that the Uganda government is tapping his phone and those around him in bid to understand his pattern of activities and interrupt them.
In an interview with Swedish Radio SRF, Bobi Wine revealed that he is aware of the ploy by government to keep him under surveillance through tapping his phone calls with different people, especially decision makers at his two-year-old NUP party.
Bobi Wine claims he is being watched through “modern and primitive” ways.
“There is this camera that looks direct into my bedroom. There are many cameras right from the main road up to here,” Bobi said in relation to the CCTV street cameras installed by the government.
He also claims that government has planted several people around him to follow his moves everywhere and spy on his activities.
My phone is not safe
In the interview, the 2021 presidential candidate who lost to President Museveni says t his phone is no longer safe for communications even amongst his party colleagues, adding that he has now found different ways to operate and relies mostly on WhatsApp calls but says he is not sure how long it will take.
He explained that to confirm his conversations are being tapped, he “faked” a call with the party Secretary General Lewis David Rubongoya and within minutes, there was a military action.
“Together with the Secretary General of my party, we decided to test them. So I called him on his phone and asked where are the declaration forms? He mentioned on the phone the name of the place and the office. Within 15 minutes, the place was surrounded,” Bobi Wine said.
He says the situation has complicated his life as he now has to limit what he says on calls while he must migrate from one app to another in search for safety.
“I have different lines, I talk only about basic stuff that I can say on radio, that is what I say on this phone,” he said, adding that he now must communicate vital things with his colleagues via WhatsApp or Telegram.
“The first step was to abandon direct calls and we started using WhatsApp, and Telegram. We are moving from one app to another looking for safety.”
Contacted for a comment, NUP Secretary General, Lewis Rubongoya who had been mentioned by Kyagulanyi confirmed their phones are being tapped.
“But of course yes,” Rubongoya said. “Well, we know it because we’ve tested it a number of times. And we’ve spoken about it.”
The case of Norbert Mao and journalist Raymond Mujuni
In November last year, Democratic Party president, now Justice and Constitutional Affairs Minister Norbert Mao said he had received notifications citing that his phone was being targeted by state sponsored “cyber terrorists”.
The same time, NTV journalist Raymond Mujuni also received messages that his phone was being targeted for the same because of “who you are and what you do”.
Mujuni said that he had been a target for some time including on his wedding day.
The Ugandan government has on several occasions denied allegations of spying on people, especially members of the opposition.
Utility
In July last year, classified reports indicated that Rwanda wiretapped on various phone conversations of Uganda’s top officials including ex-Prime Minister Ruhakana Rugunda and former Foreign Affairs Minister Sam Kutesa.
The global reporting investigation, the Pegasus Project, published by the Organised Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) indicated that Rwanda used Israel software, Pegasus to also spy on the director-general of External Security Organisation (ESO) Joseph Ocwet, Gen David Muhoozi as well as Bobi Wine’s brother Fred Nyanzi Ssentamu.
“Among the Ugandans on the [wiretapping] list, OCCRP has identified numbers belonging to long-time senior Cabinet member Sam Kutesa, former [Chief of Defence] Forces General David Muhoozi, senior intelligence officer Joseph Ocwet and leading opposition figure Fred Nyanzi Ssentamu. The selection [of the telephone numbers for tapping] coincided with a visit by Kagame to Uganda,” the report revealed.
This happened at a time when the relations between Uganda and Rwanda were at their worst.
Speaking to Nile Post later, Nyanzi said has the news of his phone allegedly being tapped had not only shocked him but caused him to fear.
Nyanzi said that few things started adding up when he heard the news.
“There were signs, but of course I could not tell. There were some indicators, for example, I could hear echoes during phone calls, sometimes I could hear my voice again when I talk back and when I asked people who know these things, they told me that it could be that someone is tracking my phone,” he said.
