Twenty two years ago last month, Lira Municipality Member of Parliament Cecilia Atim Ogwal announced that she was to sue President Museveni for listening in on her conversations. The announcement was precipitated by comments that President Museveni made on September 8, 2003, while addressing Members of Parliament on the security situation in the country.
Mr Museveni told Parliament that he had been impressed with the way Ogwal had handled a call from Vincent Otti, who was believed to be the second in command of the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA), which was fighting government forces in northern Uganda. Ogwal, Mr Museveni told Parliament, told off Otti and prayed for him to stop fighting.
“She did not know that we knew about their conversation. You know these days it is simple to know what goes on with modern technologies,’ Mr Museveni said.
Whereas Ogwal had earlier declined to comment about the President’s admission, several legislators, notably Harry Kasigwa of Jinja East and Wagonda Muguli (Buikwe North), had expressed serious concerns about the State’s admission that it was tapping into conversations. “But the government can get away with anything under the cover of national security,” Mr Wagonda Muguli said. Mr Kasigwa wondered why Ms Ogwal had not been jolted into immediate action.
“We thought that it was a joke. We possibly perceived that the industry would take it up. It infringes on the human rights in the Constitution. I am surprised Ms Ogwal has taken it low-key,’ Mr Kasigwa said.
More than three weeks later, the legislator said she would be suing Mr Museveni for intruding on her privacy. The legislator announced that she would also be filing a suit against the mobile telephone service providers, MTN Uganda, for not informing her that her phone had been tapped. “MTN should also explain to me how a third party got access to my conversation. They must explain before the courts of law,” Ms Ogwal told The Monitor on September 29, 2003. Both Ogwal and Otti are deceased.
Ogwal lost the Lira Municipality seat to Mr Jimmy Akena in the 2006 elections. She, however, returned to Parliament in August the same year after she was declared the winner of the women’s representative for the newly-created Dokolo District. She died on January 18, 2024, at the age of 77. Otti, on the other hand, is believed to have been killed in October 2007 on the orders of his boss, Joseph Kony, who allegedly accused him of insubordination and subversion.
By the time of his death, the International Criminal Court had issued a warrant of his arrest to answer 11 counts of crimes against humanity (murder, sexual enslavement, inhumane acts of inflicting serious bodily injury and suffering) and 21 counts of war crimes (rape, intentionally directing an attack against a civilian population, forced enlistment of children, cruel treatment of civilians, pillaging, and murder) allegedly committed during the rebellion in northern Uganda.
Dismissal
According to the newspaper, the Solicitor General, Mr Lucien Tibaruha, laughed off Ogwals’ threats, telling The Monitor on September 30, 2003, that under Ugandan law, no one can sue the President. The paper, however, quoted Mr Tibaruha saying Ogwal could instead sue the government. ‘Let her try. We will be waiting,’ Mr Tibaruha said in a telephone interview with The Monitor. Mr Mike Chibita, the president’s legal officer, said Ogwal could go ahead and sue.
“What she needs to know is that there is a law that allows security organs to monitor phone calls,’ Mr Chibita said. “Maybe the President was not listening in on her [conversation], but to the rebels. What proof does she have that it was her phone being tapped?’ Chibita said Ogwal would have to give such evidence to support her suit, and that she would also have to prove that she was aggrieved. ‘Of course, anyone can sue, but the courts would sort them out,’ Mr Chibita said.
Chibita is currently a Justice of the Supreme Court.
MTN denies
Mr Erik Van Veen, who was MTN’s chief marketing officer at the time, was quick to say that it was impossible for anyone to tap an MTN to MTN phone call at the time. Mr Van Veen challenged anyone with evidence that tapping was possible to provide it. However, by then, Lt Gen David Tinyefuza (now Sejusa), who held a high rank in government, had complained about phone tapping. He made the complaint in 1997 at the height of his failed bid to resign from the Uganda People’s Defence Forces (UPDF).
Also, sources within security circles told The Monitor that the State had acquired and installed phone-tapping equipment at the parliamentary buildings. The Parliamentary buildings also housed the offices of the President and Vice President and had an anti-bugging device.
The source, however, hastened to add that its capacity was limited to tapping only five lines at the time. “Once someone is bugging your phone, he gets access to what you are saying and what the party on the other end of the line is saying. You can choose to record the proceedings, but there are hi-tech machines that do self-recording,” the source said. It should be remembered that on June 19, 2002, Dr Kizza Besigye, then living in exile in South Africa, while speaking on the political talk show, the Hot Seat on 93.3 Monitor FM, claimed that personnel of the Chieftaincy of Military Intelligence (CMI) were tapping MTN phone calls.
Dr Besigye also accused MTN of providing CMI with printouts of calls made by clients. “Unfortunately, MTN is acting in a very dishonourable way, giving its customers’ information to whoever comes asking for it,” he said. During the same talk show, Col Noble Mayombo, the chief of CMI, indicated as much. He read out a long list of phone numbers that Besigye had purportedly called. MTN dismissed the claims immediately after the Mayombo vs Besigye debate. Mr Thomas Bragaw, the chief executive officer, issued a statement to that effect.
“I would like to categorically state that MTN does not pass out phone records with the exception of court orders,” he said. He also dismissed accusations of collusion with security to tap phones. “MTN has never been asked to tap phones in the three and a half years we have been here. We don’t even have the technology,’ Mr Bragaw said.
Mayombo was, however, elusive when contacted on September 30, 2003, in line with the legal suit that Ogwal was threatening to file. “You sue the Attorney General. We work for the government, but do you have the evidence?” he asked.
Pressed on how he would respond to such a case if at all it came up, Mayombo added, “I am a lawyer, I know how to respond to that [in court].” Mayombo died on May 1, 2007, at the age of 42. He had by then been promoted to the rank of Brigadier.
The law
It should be remembered that the Suppression of Terrorism Act, which was passed by Parliament in 2001, allows a minister to authorise anyone to intercept phone calls, letters, postal packages, faxes, e-mails and grants government access to citizens’ bank accounts. That authority must be followed by an order from a magistrate, but the same law also provides that a “person who claims to be aggrieved” by the surveillance can petition the same magistrate and cause it to be lifted.
The law practically handed the minister of Security a lot of areas that they could possibly exploit in order to obtain an order to intercept communication.
The Act notes that the minister can always seek such in order for, among other reasons, the prevention of the violation of the fundamental and other human rights and freedoms of any person, safeguarding public interest, preventing or detecting the commission of any offence, and safeguarding the national economy.