Uganda Communications Commission (UCC) has warned of acting against the use of BITCHAT App, an alternative communication tool that the opposition NUP party leader Bobi Wine has been encouraging his supporters to use during the January 15 general elections, in case government shuts down the internet like in previous elections.
At the end of December 2025, Bobi Wine had claimed through his official social media spaces that he had reliable information about a plot by the government through UCC to shut down the internet during elections, urging his supporters to download the BITCHAT App for their alternative use during such a time.
However, the UCC boss Eng Thembo Nyombi warned the citizenry that platforms used to spread what he called misinformation, inciting unrest as well as undermining public order would attract regulatory action, from his Commission regardless of their origin or popularity.
Nyombi stated that BITCHAT App should not be regarded as a safeguard against possible communication restrictions, emphasizing that government reserves the technical capacity to disable digital platforms as and when it is necessary.
The UCC Executive Director confirmed that government had a large pool of skilled software engineers and developers within its regulatory agencies with capabilities to monitor or switch off applications that operate outside the country’s regulatory framework.
He was speaking during a news briefing from the government’s Media Center in Kampala on Monday.
Nyombi maintained that UCC will continue to monitor traditional and digital media spaces to ensure compliance with existing communication laws and to safeguard national stability.
Nyombi’s warning comes at the time when Elon Musk’s Starlink Market Access Space Exploration Technologies Corp Internet Company has in the January 2nd letter to the UCC Executive Director distanced itself from claims of providing illegal telecommunication services in Uganda, expressing readiness to disable their operation in Uganda until further notice.
Starlink service’s withdrawal from the Ugandan space ahead of January 15 elections has ever since met opposition from Bobi Wine, calling for reactivation of the same that the citizens may be able to communicate and stand a fair chance at shaping their destiny.
It should be noted that government totally shut down the internet and mobile money services during the 2016 and 2021 elections, an action that was widely condemned by the opposition leaders and rights advocates.
Whether the same thing will be repeated, time will tell.
