Following an investigative report by the Wall Street Journal alleging that Huawei Uganda aided the state government to spy and block the actions of members of the opposition especially Bobi Wine, the company has issued a statement to refute the allegations as “unfounded and inaccurate”.
The company states that it “prides itself on its compliance with the local laws and regulations in all markets where it operates” and that its code of business conduct does not allow employees to undertake any activities that would compromise customers or end users’ data or privacy.
Huawei clearly states that the only project in relation to security that they are involved in is that of CCTV cameras installed on roads and highways and dismisses any accusations that they have staff stationed at the Uganda Police Headquarters as alleged in the Wall Street Journal report.
The Statement reads:
Uganda Police CCTV Project is The ONLY security related project we have in Uganda whose scope is installing CCTV cameras, network, project command and data center for specifically public security surveillance and identification of criminal activities. The training therefore we offer police officers is ONLY how to manage the CCTV system.
We have also never developed any intelligence monitoring project for Uganda or signed any contract related to spying and intelligence related activities. The major purpose of CCTV project deployment is to identify criminal activities from wrong doers by CCTV camera surveillance and has already practically helped the Uganda Police to reduce the criminal rate in the city streets.
The company also denies accompanying any Ugandan officials or police officers to Beijing for technical training.
The report in question suggests that Ugandan authorities used assistance from Huawei to hack into messages to block the plans for Bobi Wine to stage street rallies and it is through this that he was arrested together with his supporters.
The report also points at similar activity happening in Zambia where the telecom company technicians allegedly helped the government access the phones and Facebook pages of opposition bloggers behind a pro-opposition news site that criticized President Edgar Lungu.
