President Yoweri Museveni has defended his government’s decision to shut down the internet, days before the January 14 general election.
This is in an affidavit filed in response to a petition by Kyagulanyi Robert Ssentamu, his main challenger in the just concluded elections.
In his petition filed on Monday this week, Kyagulanyi said Museveni was declared winner fraudulently after the Electoral Commission, Museveni himself and the Attorney General engaged in acts that offended the laws governing elections in Uganda.
The total shutdown of the internet, that took at least five days, is one of the grounds on which Kyagulanyi wants Museveni’s victory annulled.
He said that the shutdown which persists for Social Media sites such as Facebook, Twitter and Instagram among others, not only denied Ugandans their right to communication and association, but also crippled his ability to gather and transmit Declaration of Results Forms from his agents across the country.
Today, Museveni’s lawyers of K&K Advocates and
Byenkya, Kihika & Co. Advocates filed their response to a presidential
petition by Kyagulanyi seeking to overturn the victory of Museveni who was
declared president-elect by the Electoral Commission on January 16.
Museveni, the candidate for the National Resistance Movement-NRM said that it
was important to shut down the internet because some people were hell-bent at
using it to destabilize the country.
He adds that switching off the internet did not affect any freedom and fairness during the election as it didn’t curtail the free flow of information to the electorate.
Museveni also denies any claims that the Electoral Commission falsified results in his favour.
Museveni also denies ever ordering any security personnel to arrest, harass or intimidate Kyagulanyi or his supporters or agents across the country as was alleged. END.