Foul play suspected by founder of closed Ugandan activists Facebook group

Mid last week, Ugandans at Heart, a popular Facebook page where Ugandans from around the world have been conducting discussions on a wide range of issues, was deactivated by Facebook. Abbey Ssemuwemba, the UK-based political commentator and activist who founded the page in 2007, says he received a brief message from Facebook stating that the page had been closed down for breach of Terms and Conditions of Use, and that he has repeatedly tried to query Facebook over the closure.

And now, as despite several queries Facebook has neither reactivated the page nor replied to the founders’ queries about its closure, the page founder says that himself and the page’s administration team are beginning to increasingly suspect foul play. Ssemuwemba reckons that the timing of the page’s closure only raises his suspicions further, saying the closure follows increased expression of discomfort with the page by Ugandan government officials..

“One time, Hon. Frank Tumwebaze attacked the forum in the Daily Monitor calling it all sorts of names,” Ssemuwemba says. “Then General Kale Kayihura was recorded bad-mouthing the page. Another policeman Andrew Kaweesi wrote an article in the New vision some time back, calling the forum a security threat that needed to be closed. All that means Ugandan authorities’ involvement with the page’s closure can’t be really ruled out yet.”

In response, the Minister for the Presidency, Frank Tumwebaze, says has actually never known about ‘Ugandans At Heart’. “I really don’t know who those Ugandans at Heart people are, what they do, or even where they are based,” Tumwebaze says. “Those people are simply misled. I have no control over Facebook, I don’t even know where Facebook is located or how it is really run. Actually I’m so poor at social media as a whole, even my Facebook account was opened for me by someone else.”

However, Hon. Tumwebaze’s response even makes Ssemuwemba more suspicious, as he says Hon. Tumwebaze is only denying knowledge of the group because “he was even a member of the forum and is on record blackmailing it in writing.”

Amidst all that, what is indubitable is that Ugandans At Heart had become a leading online platform for Ugandans with a fondness for discussing the issues affecting their country, especially those with an inclination to the governance and political realms. The page members mostly discussed politics and governance issues, although there were also often discussions on history, cultural issues, health, among other disciplines.

It is also worth noting that many people had been increasingly expressing discontent with the way different issues were being debated in the forum, many citing tribalism, hate campaigns against the NRM government and President Museveni, attacks on cultural leaders, among others.

To that, however, Ssemuwemba responds that the page administrators were trying their best to keep within the Facebook terms and conditions, especially as it was a public forum where all Ugandans were free to participate regardless of their political affiliations.

He says there were enough moderators who did everything possible to keep the group within limits, regularly disabling people who didn’t conform. The page founder says it is also important, however, to note that since the Arab Spring mass uprisings, Facebook has been closing down activists groups in different countries.

Ssemuwemba says that in the wake of the closure and apparent non-response by Facebook, himself and other members of the old page have opened a new forum called Ugandans At Heart Stereo. The new group already had 17,000 members yesterday, but Ssemuwemba says after losing the old group with 67,000 members (whom they aimed to have multiplied to 150,000 by the time of the 2016 elections) it all looks bleak.