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KAMPALA. – A move by Uganda’s government to install digital tracking devices on vehicles to help fight rampant crime has been denounced as a way to monitor activists, government opponents and critics.
Authorities in the east African country last week signed an agreement with Russian firm Joint-Stock Global Systems to install digital trackers in all vehicles in Uganda.
President Yoweri Museveni has said his government wants to rely on high-tech tools like a Chinese-supplied and installed CCTV camera system and the digital trackers being procured to help fight and solve crimes.
The digital tracker plan has prompted widespread criticism. Opponents say such mass surveillance would erode individual privacy rights and is not supported by Ugandan law.
“In all repressive regimes they use national security as a scapegoat to spy on people and to trample on people rights,” said Dorothy Mukasa, who heads Unwanted Witness, a Kampala-based digital communications rights watchdog. – Reuters.
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