Social media shutdown: Online entrepreneurs’ ordeals

An online clothes retailer shares her experience during the coronavirus lockdown in May 2020.

BY IRENE ABALO OTTO

Edited by Tabua Butagira

Ugandans began experiencing restricted social media access on January 11, 2021 – three days to the January 14 presidential elections – before a complete shutdown on January 13.

Online businesses in Uganda were first hit by last year’s four-month Covid-19 lockdown and just when they were staggering to life, the government struck them down last month with shutdown of Internet and social media.

After five days of total Internet shutdown and nearly a month-long blockade on social media, the government yesterday restored social media services.

“Internet and social media services have been fully restored. We apologise for the inconveniences caused, but it was for the security of our country. Let’s be constructive, NOT destructive consumers/users of social media,” Mr Peter Ogwang, the state minster for Information, Communication Technology and National Guidance, tweeted Wednesday. 

Mr Ogwang, however, did not explain why social media has been restored, but the decision came two days after this newspaper in an article exposed Cabinet ministers, including Mr Ogwang, who remained active on both Twitter and Facebook in defiance of the government’s own ban.

This newspaper understands that President Museveni met senior officials, including government communication experts, on Tuesday evening who informed him that it was unjustifiable to continue the embargo on social media in the wake of the Daily Monitor exposé.

In addition, the President was told that the shutdown was counter-productive as government was unable to respond to online attacks by its haters outside Uganda.

Whereas the blockade on social media was lifted yesterday, MTN Uganda informed its subscribers through short text messages (SMS) that access to Facebook, with which the government has a tiff, would remain restricted.

“Yellow Irene! Government has permitted Social Media access except FB (Facebook) starting today. Thank you for your patience,” read a message from MTN sent to this Reporter at 5:06 pm yesterday.

Uganda Communications Commission (UCC) records, as of October 31, 2020, indicate that there are up to 20 million Internet users in Uganda, with 19 million of them active monthly users.

Although both the Internet and social media have been unblocked, users’ experiences have not been the same compared to the pre-shutdown period.

“This is not the normal Internet we used in 2020. I have tried using it without Virtual Private Network (VPN), but it is too slow. I actually think they are still planning to restore it or it is a hoax,” said Mr Rogers Semakula, proprietor of New Fashion Designers, an online business selling women shoes.

According to Ms Farida Matovu, the chief executive of Kampala-based Fana Kitchen Ware, which sells kitchenware online, “it takes a long time to upload or download pictures. The videos are not uploading.”

She added: “Covid-19 affected us but this Internet shutdown affected us more. We had to close the shop and go home. There are people like my old mum who knew nothing about VPN. They are the majority of consumers who have money to spend on products like ours. The youth knew how to navigate and bypass the shutdown, but they are not the ones buying these goods. Majority are on social media for fun and connection with others.”

Ugandans experienced widespread Internet disruption on platforms such as Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram and Snapchat, when using the country’s data servers.

UCC, without giving any reason, instructed telecom companies to restrict access to social media from January 11, 2021 till Wednesday February 10, 2021.

That was when Uganda realized that perhaps no one can efficiently operate without the internet, not even the government. While connection to other internet services were restored on January 18, 2020, two days after presidential results were announced, social media remained inaccessible except for VPN users.

Whereas there is no clear statistic of how much businesses lost during the Internet and social media shutdown, Jumia, a major online retailer in Uganda, says they could not immediately quantify the losses but it runs in several millions of shillings during the total shutdown from January 13 to January 18, 2021.

Ms Samantha Abaho, the Jumia public relations manager, said they were able to move on with orders for those who could use their emails when the Internet was restored. Unlike other businesses that depend totally on social media for orders, Jumia has an option for their customers to set up email accounts for orders.

Other businesses could not operate in that manner. Mr Robert Katimbo (not real name) sells bras of all sizes and make. He used to advertise or display his stock online, especially Facebook and WhatsApp and deliver to homes and offices at a cost.

“I could not sell anything when they removed us from social media,” Mr Katimbo said on Monday.

He declined to discuss details of the losses he incurred, but sounded elated over news of the restoration of the Internet.  

“Are you sure social media is back? Let me first check then we talk later. Let me check if there are any orders coming on my (Facebook) page,” Mr Katimbo said before hanging up.

Big businesses easily picked up off social media to reach their clients but there are small businesses that totally depended on social media to sell their products.

Mr Semakula, the dealer in women shoes online, has clientele spread across borders in Kenya, Tanzania and Sudan. He estimates that he lost more than Shs20 million during the 29-days social media shutdown, with daily sales plummeting by half.

“Generally, everything was slow and low. Communication was hard, (clients’) orders were low ad orders from suppliers came in slowly. Some of my clients out there did not know how to use VPN, (to bypass government Internet shutdown). So, they just gave up and waited for the Internet to be restored,” Mr Semakula said yesterday.

He added: “I had to make direct calls or send SMS to clients. I just went back to offline as something I could hold on to keep around. I cannot compare online to offline. Off line is just not organised because things are not on time.”

Despite his business suffering a setback during the Internet shutdown, Mr Semakula said he would still choose to do business online.

“The world is moving online. There is no way we can continue to operate offline. I cannot recommend for anyone to start a business or operate offline,” he said.

Some businesses like Fana Kitchen Ware that operate online stopped operations during the total Internet shutdown for the five days from January 13 to January 18, 2021.

The Chief Executive Officer, Fana Kitchen Ware hoped that after the total shutdown, she would resume normal operations but was disappointed to learn that her clients were not on VPN. For those outside Uganda, explanations that Uganda was under Internet blockade fell on deaf ears for impatient clients who needed immediate deliveries.

“I kept calling and explaining that our Internet was shut down. But things online move fast. Whenever you delay, the customer looks for an available alternative,” chief executive Matovu said.

Most businesses were still recovering from the shock of the four months coronavirus lockdown from March to June when the internet shutdown happened.

Ms Matovu complained that the cost of doing business was already on the rise and new headwinds such as Internet and social media blackout make life more difficult for online entrepreneurs.

Some of the online businesses rent out premise for storage of merchandise and had incurred arrears by the time of the shutdown yet they had negotiated with the landlords to deduct payments on monthly basis.

“I know several people, workmates and associates who are offline. I know several businesses that are collapsing each day because they were surviving through online related work. The Tourism, Education, Health and IT sector has been most affected. I also understand that the airline industry was greatly affected in the earliest stages of the shutdown,” Mr Kato Mukasa, a Human Rights defender in a letter published in the Thursday edition of the Daily Monitor.

According to the Ministry of Finance, the cost of Internet shutdown weighed heavily on the government too since it affected its ability to repay its debt burden, receive tax revenue and also pay wages due to civil servants.

Kyagulanyi says he can win Museveni in an election – without army

Robert Kyagulanyi alias Bobi Wine, former Presidential Candidate, NUP

Former presidential Candidate Robert Ssentamu Kyagulanyi has said without the  army and police involvement in Uganda’s elections, President Yoweri Museveni can not win him in an election. 

The Kyadondo East legislator who is also the leader of the National Unity Platform, NUP party claims that he won President elect Museveni in the January 14 poll citing fraud and violence in the electoral process. 

Mr Kyagulanyi challenged president Museveni to a re-election where they are only two on the ballot paper to prove how unpopular he had become among Ugandans. 

“I challenge him (Gen Museveni) for a re-election without involvement of the army and police. With internet and a free media, I can win him,” Mr Kyagulanyi said.

Mr Kyagulanyi was addressing about 300 National Unity Platform elected leaders from Mukono South, North, Nakifuma and Mukono Municipality at his home In Magere, Wakiso district. 

He urged elected leaders to remember the people who gave them the mandate through their votes to become leaders and agents of change in Uganda’s political space.

Mr. Kyagulanyi said he is not looking at his party leaders as those to be in the opposition but in government. 

Already, Mukono Municipality Member of Parliament Betty Nambooze has secured interest to become the leader of government business if NUP becomes the next government after the judgment. 

On February 1,2021, Mr. Kyagulanyi filed a petition with the Supreme Court challenging the victory of President Museveni voting fraud and non-compliance with electoral laws. 

“I believe in the rule of law, that’s why I went to court. My belief in the courts does not mean that the courts are not going to be abused by Gen Museveni. I believe in democracy, that’s why I participated in the elections. My belief in democracy does not mean that democracy is not going to be disrespected by Museveni,” Mr Kyagulanyi told Daily Monitor on Monday from his home in Magere. 

The Electoral Commission on January 16, 2021 announced President Museveni as winner of the January 14 polls with 58 percent against Kyagulanyi’s 34 percent. Kyagulanyi insists he won the election. 

The court is expected to deliver its judgment within 45 days from the date of filing the petition. Nine justices of the Supreme Court are to hear the election petition including Chief Justice Owiny-Dollo, Dr Esther Kisaakye Kitimbo, Mike Chibita among others.

“I have thrown the challenge to the judiciary. This is a clear case. Everything that I stated in the petition was actually public knowledge. It is up on the court of law to show that they are worth their name,” Mr Kyagulanyi said. 

Meanwhile, Kyagulanyi and his NUP elected leaders are expected to chose the next leader of opposition in the eleventh parliament to replace Forum for Democratic Change’s Ms Betty AOL Ochan. 

“Giving you an update, we went to court because we have clear evidence that is clear for even for the blind man to see and we therefore asked court for two things. We asked it to cancel Mr Museveni’s victory and if it comes to the worst, we get to have a re-election as long as the army [and security] is kept out polls/election matters and without teargas,” Mr Kyagulanyi told NUP leaders at his home I. Magere on Monday. 

Uganda’s president elect is to sworn into office on May 12, 2021 according to the constitution.

Dynamics of covid-19 and mental health treatment

BY Irene Abalo Otto

When Uganda’s health care systems began experiencing a surge in covid-19 cases from June, 2020, some regional referral hospital mental health units were converted into Covid Treatment Units, CTU.

“We resorted to the mental health unit because of the nature of how it had been constructed. It could easily be zoned (to prevent infections spreading to other patients in the hospital). Sooner or later, we realised we had run into trouble with mental patients. We did not have where to put them. We tried putting them in other ordinary wards but the other patients were complaining. We were lucky that we had Kyabakoza Health Centre II, which was constructed but not yet used and it has a fence,” Dr. Nathan Onyachi, the Masaka Regional Referral Hospital Director explained on Sunday. The district allowed the hospital to temporarily use the health centre as their mental health unit.  

In June, Arua Regional Referral Hospital shifted their mental health unit to the Ear, Nose and Throat admission room after the unit was turned into a CTU. Twenty mentally ill patients on admission were relocated. 

“Two of the mentally ill patients were found mixed with covid patients in the red zone. After four months when they shifted to EAT, some patients started escaping to go back to their old mental health unit which had covid patients. Up to now, the hospital is struggling to keep the mentally ill in their new location,” Mr Stephen Candia, a journalist in Arua who also attended covid task force meetings where reports would be presented on emerging issues told Daily Monitor. The management of the hospital declined to speak to Daily Monitor on the current situation. 

Other referral facilities have had to adapt and change their method of operation to avert such challenges.  

Masaka hospital realised that after shifting their Mental Health Unit to Kyabakoza Health Centre II, a new nearby facility, they needed to adopt consellign of relatives to manage their patients from home rather than admit them at the health facility. 

“Covid units have zero patients for the first time. We are keeping our fingers crossed. We do not want to get excited. We hope that it means the disease is going down. If we spend some time without receiving covid patients, we shall consider returning the mental health unit probably by the end of February,” Dr Onyachi said adding that;

“Fortunately, our mental health staff found innovative ways of avoiding admission of mental health patients. They started giving longer acting medicines that could keep them at home and somehow they have coped. Probably the worst thing they have done is to detain a patient a day or twenty four hours and then let them go home. It is also a good thing for them (staff). They did not think they could do it but they have done it,”

At Lira Regional Referral Hospital, service models also changed during the covid period by venturing more into community outreach than waiting for patients to come to the hospital. This was intended to reduce crowds at the facility to prevent the spread of covid-19 that would exacerbate the situation of the mental health patients.

“We are now doing community outreaches to have mental health patients access care. Our team of professionals go out to the patients in areas that we have mapped. There are just a few people (with mental health illnesses) coming to the health facility,” Dr Steven Oboo, the Director Lira Regional Referral Hospital said on Thursday last week.

Mental health medics say the lockdown measures instituted by the government made some patients miss out on their medications.

“They missed out on their medication. When they locked down, most health facilities had not yet delivered the medicines. They were still preparing to replenish, then the lockdown came and the facilities were still waiting for their supplies. Somehow, there were these relapses. Once there is a relapse, people sometimes have to be admitted to first normalize and calm them down, The medicines became available after the lockdown,” Dr Hasifa Nkwata, the Commissioner in charge of mental Health at the Ministry of Health told Daily Monitor last week.

This forced the patients to seek care from other facilities before options could be found for space within the existing space in the hospitals to accommodate mental health patients.  This affected the conventional set up of care for mental health patients.

“Initially, when we had just started (covid lockdown) everything was okay. However, when the lockdown ended, other services somehow continued but the mental health services suffered because there was nowhere they could be. Our units were being used as the Covid Treatment Units,”

Since the phased lifting of the lockdown began on June 4, Butabika Hospital received a high number of patients.
Dr Juliet Nakku, the deputy executive director of Butabika National Referral Mental Hospital, told Daily Monitor in July 2020 that between July12 and July 18, the hospital received about 1,050 cases needing admission, yet previously they received between 800 and 900 patients per week.
Butabika Hospital has a bed capacity of 550.  

“We do not know exactly what is causing the surge, but we suspect it could be due to two reasons. One is the fact that mental health services are not being accessed in other parts of the country.” Dr Nakku told Daily Monitor in July.

But currently, the referral facilities are adapting to the change in service delivery.

“For the referrals, it is not true that people were being referred officially to Butabika. Only that when services were not available, those who were taking care of those patients had to get other alternatives and that is how we saw the people getting into Butabika hospital. Whoever would fail to find proper care, they were shifting to Butabika,” said Dr. Nkwata.

There is no clear statistic to show the current number of patients seeking mental health care are both regional and national levels. But the commissioner mental health said fewer patients are on admission at referral facilities. Most patients are being attended to at the out-patient department, treated and they go back home.

Arua Regional Referral Hospital, Fort Portal Regional Referral Hospital, Gulu Regional Referral Hospital, Hoima Regional Referral Hospital, Jinja Regional Referral Hospital, Kabale Regional Referral Hospital, Old Mulago Hospital, Lira Regional Referral Hospital, Masaka Regional Referral Hospital, Mbale Regional Referral Hospital, Mbarara Regional Referral Hospital, Moroto Regional Referral Hospital, Mubende Regional Referral Hospital, Soroti Regional Referral Hospital.

The pandemic shifted most attention from other sicknesses at various health facilities to prevention or treatment of covid-19. Some mental health patients are on long term treatment and require refills after a specific period of time.

“She has to take medicine every day. She cannot skip. They are treating her for mental health. She used to speak to herself. I have come to pick medicine for my mother. She was admitted here for many years but when she was discharged, I took the responsibility upon myself to get her medication from here,” Ms Namudu Lillian, a 20 year old daughter of a mentally ill mother of seven from Mukono district. Ms Namuddu is a Midwifery student at Muyenga in Kampala. Namuddu was speaking to Daily Monitor from Butabika Hospital on December 2, 2020. She has grown up seeing her mother struggle with mental illness for about fifteen years after her mother’s marriage went soar. The marriage eventually broke and her father remarried. Her mother remains single.

“She wants to speak only to me. The rest of the time she is there quiet. She just sleeps in the bed. She tells me that she wants to come back here (at Butabika hospital). She says there is freedom. When she had just come back (home) from here, she used to demand us to care for her. She wants you to bath her, feed her. She never wanted to bath alone. It reached a moment when we left her to care for herself. The bad thing is that she is weak. So she stays in bed most of the time,” said Ms Namuddu.

Information obtained from medics at Butabika National Mental Hospital details that the number of out-patients visiting the unit were mainly re-attendances which does not indicate an increase in the number of admissions at the government facility from June to October 2020. 

The medics spoke anonymously because they do not have authority to speak to the media. The main mental disorders for which people seek mental health care include; epilepsy, bipolar, schizophrenia, depression and dementia.

In 2019, Butabika hospital received about 12,855 patients seeking treatment for epilepsy, 11,354 for bipolar, 10,344 for schizophrenia and 2,437 for depression. Daily Monitor is yet to get the figures for 2020 from the hospital due to bureaucratic requirements for access to the statistics.  

Cabinet lists recommendations to prevent future fires at Makerere ahead of official investigation report release.

BY IRENE ABALO OTTO

Cabinet sitting at Entebbe on Monday last week ‘noted’ a number of recommendations from a police investigation report on how the fire that gutted Makerere University’s ‘Ivory Tower’ building last year can be prevented in future. The report has not yet been officially released. 

Makerere was first established in 1922 as a technical institute but grew to become one of the best Universities in Africa.

The January 25, 2021 cabinet decisions listed ten recommendations from an investigation report into the September 19, 2020 midnight fire that gutted the iconic main administration building, whose copy Daily Monitor could not obtain by press time.

But Vice Chancellor Prof Barnabas Nawangwe yesterday tweeted; “We have received inquiries from several stakeholders of Makerere University about fundraising for restoration of our iconic main building. The fundraising drive awaits release of the @PoliceUg report on investigations on the cause of the fire which destroyed the building. We will inform all stakeholders immediately the report is released, which we expect will be very soon.”

But cabinet seem to have had some insights on the report and the meeting noted the recommendations from the report including; revamping electrical installations in old Buildings of Makerere University with an increase in annual maintenance budget of the Estates and Works Department to enable the department carry out preventive maintenance on buildings in the University.

“Two electricians with at least an Ordinary Diploma in Electrical Engineering and installations permits should be recruited. A registered Electrical Engineer should be recruited for the Estates and Works Department, at management level. The University should ensure that all Closed Current Television (CCTV) in the buildings are fully functional and monitored in a central surveillance room at all times,” reads part of the recommendation in the cabinet decision.

The Cabinet decision further noted that the Fire Brigade should beef up its capacity to effectively and efficiently respond to fire and have a fire fighting truck permanently stationed at Makerere University.

Makerere University and other Government Institutions are to ensure installation of fire hydrant points for use by the fire brigade and the university should put in place a proper health and safety system as per the Occupational Safety and Health Act, 2006.

The Act was also designed to ensure that fires can be prevented before they cause damage.

Section 63 (1) of the Act indicates that; “efficient devices or appliances shall be provided and maintained in every room or place where work is carried on, by which power can promptly be cut off from the transmission machinery in that room or place, where there is eminent danger.”

The Act in section 84 stipulates that; “All electrical apparatus, fittings and conductors shall be sufficient in size and power for the work they are meant for and shall be constructed, installed, protected, worked and maintained to prevent danger, as far as is reasonably practicable.”

Away from the University, the cabinet hinted on approved plans, without giving details, to enhance the capacity of the National Building Review Board to monitor buildings across the country for timely detection of deterioration.

The National Building Review Board is a body corporate established by the Building Control Act, 2013.  Politically, the body reports to and is guided by the Minister of Works and Transport.

 NBRB is mandated to Monitor building developments, ensure that the design and construction of buildings and utilities to which the public is to have access, caters for Persons with Disabilities (PWDS) to ensure that PWDS are able to comfortably make their way into and maneuver within buildings with dignity, independence and safety on an equal basis with others who have no disability; Oversee, inspect and monitor the operations of Building Committees; Hear and determine appeals from persons dissatisfied with the decisions of a Building Committee; and determine the fees to be charged by urban and district Building Committees for approval of plans, issue of building permits and occupation permits.