Social media has become the most all-embracing media platform in the world, with millions scrolling through various apps at any one moment of the day – sharing or consuming content. Ugandans are part and parcel of this social media craze. According to the Uganda Communications Commission (UCC) social media usage report (2024), at least 9.2 million (31 percent) Ugandans subscribe to TikTok, 9.3 million (31 percent) to WhatsApp, 6.4 million (22 percent) to YouTube, 2 million (7 percent) to Snapchat, 1.3 million (4 percent) to X/Twitter, 1.6 million (5 percent) to Instagram, and 0.2 million (1 percent) to Netflix.
In terms of engagement measured through data usage, TitkTok which is at par with WhatsApp in terms of subscription accounts for 56 percent of traffic volume. WhatsApp does not make even half of that, accounting for 24 percent of traffic volume, and YouTube further down the scale at 13 percent traffic volume. The rest of social media accounts for between 1 percent and 2 percent of social media usage traffic volume. The famed elitist X/Twitter accounts for a measly 1 percent.
TikTok’s mojo has been in its structure as a short video app. Short video, as elsewhere in the world, is now the currency of social media in Uganda. Where in the past short videos were mostly social banter – music, relationships, travel, etc, politics is now fully on the menu.
Thus today, hundreds – if not thousands – of aspiring candidates for various political offices in the 2026 Uganda general election are running social media accounts, particularly short videos on TikTok where they are sharing electrifying moments of their campaign rallies, or denigrating opponents. This in part, is because it doesn’t cost much! Just a smartphone with camera, a minute of steady recording hand, data, and a click of the share button. Perhaps one of the most memorable short videos of this political season will be the ‘Tanga Odoi Moment’ – the short video of NRM electoral head, Tanga Odoi, captured by an unknown citizen counting ‘votes’ backwards, forwards, and sideways during the NRM party primaries.
Whichever way we look at it, in that algebraic moment, the history professor etched himself into Uganda’s election history. Where in 1980 it was about gerrymandering, detention of aspirants ahead of nomination, and denial of nomination to candidates on flippant reasons like they can’t prove their proficiency in the English language, in 2026, it will be about how to count votes like Tanga Odoi.
So, as the political races near the wire on January 15, 2026, there may be many such ‘Tanga moments’ at polling stations around the country, and when they happen, citizens will be there to capture and spread them on social media. Thus, almost everyone in Uganda with a smartphone of whatever sophistication and pricing will have the opportunity to record a ‘Tanga Odoi Moment’ as votes are counted at the polling stations, giving citizens the opportunity to juxtapose ‘official’ results with the raw results recorded at polling centres.
But it may be too early to celebrate. As Chinua Achebe wrote in his book of Eneke the bird that said ‘since men have learned to shoot without missing, he has learned to fly without perching’, the ‘Tanga Odoi moment’ has given lessons to not just the citizens that wish to see votes counted logically, but also to those that wish to count votes like the good old history professor. So while citizens hope that mobile phones and social media will spread electoral transparency, many equally fear that it may end up as a useless piece of technology that can be suffocated.
Tanzania just proved this recently when the entire internet was shut down on polling day. Behind this internet blackout, amidst the violence and bloodbath, the votes were counted forwards, backwards and sideways, thus giving the incumbent President Samia Hassan Suluhu a landslide of almost 100 percent of votes cast (counted?) – 97.6 percent to be precise! Here, the ‘Suluhu moment’ was behind the curtains. Come polling day, January 15, 2026, many media watchers in Uganda and elsewhere will be watching, hoping to see neither of these moments – ‘Tanga moment’ or ‘Suluhu moment’ or deep fakes.