By George Murumba

25^th Oct 2010

CMI boss Brig Mugira

The government’s security services have stepped up their campaign to intercept telephone and email communications, Uganda Correspondent can exclusively reveal.

According to a source within the security services, the heightened interception activities are normal during election time.  “…This is just a natural reaction to the challenges that the election period is throwing at us”, said the government spy.

He said internally, they are particularly interested in knowing what the more militant political leaders and activists discuss amongst themselves. Their motivation, he said, “…is to ensure that the government knows and plans appropriate reactions to sinister plans aimed at disorganizing the country”.

The security operative also revealed that they routinely monitor conversations between politically active Ugandans in the Diaspora and top political leaders in Uganda.  “…Any responsible government would be interested in knowing what resourceful Ugandans in the Diaspora discuss with their leaders in Uganda”, he said.

The source told Uganda Correspondent that the eavesdropping usually takes place at a few public and private establishments within Kampala that he refused to identify.  He only said one such establishment is owned by a foreign mobile phone company that has been operating in Uganda for a long time.

According to our source, the other major communications interception centre used by CMI is located near Nakasero State House in a building that the government is said to have compulsorily purchased from its former private owner.

Before the election period kicked in, all the gathered intelligence information would, according to our source, be taken to CMI headquarters on Kitante Road for thorough analysis by intelligence experts every two days.  However, for this election period, a decision has been taken to submit the gathered intelligence for analysis on a daily basis.

It is also from there that strategies for dealing with security threats that may have emerged from the interception exercises are drawn up, the source added.

Uganda, the source said, is currently interested in intercepting phone and email communication from Ugandans living in Britain, Rwanda, South Africa, Kenya, and USA among other places.  END.  If it’s Monday, it’s Uganda Correspondent.  Never miss out again!