Police say claims of spying on Bobi Wine are hogwash

Police have denied claims that it was involved in spying opposition politician and Kyadondo East Member of Parliament, Robert Kyagulanyi also known as Bobi Wine as utter rubbish.

A report in the Wall Street Journal last week claimed that the Ugandan government, through the Police Force worked with technicians from the telecoms company Huawei to crack the encrypted communications for Bobi Wine as one of the ways to spy on him.

The report was carried by local media organisations.

In a statement responding to claims, the Police spokesperson the report was malicious and intended to taint their image but on the other side give mileage to Bobi Wine which they say is hogwash.

“We strongly believe the Article by the WSJ that is being used to sabotage and smear the Uganda Police Force, and give political mileage to a particular member of the opposition and other interests. We wonder why they would single out one leader, yet there are many other players in the political arena of Uganda including other politicians, activists, Members of Parliament, Journalists, to mention a few,”Enanga said.

“We do petition both the WSJ to release information that the anti-crime infrastructure we are installing has been secretly used to extract personal information from private cell phones. We have seen the same accusations fronted against many other countries and institutions, using the Huawei intelligent monitoring systems. We believe its pure sabotage and a trade war strategy against Huawei and its clients.”

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The Police spokesperson said they cannot afford to be diverted from their core role of fighting through their existing contract with Chinese company, Huawei Technologies to install CCTV cameras countrywide.

“The contract including both the hardware and software was thoroughly evaluated, and there were no shortcomings in the engineering and policing processes. We want to assure all Ugandans that there are no concerns in using Huawei technology. Our relationship is purely business and does not prohibit us from purchasing or using their telecommunications and surveillance products in addressing crime and safety in our country,” Enanga said.

Police insisted they will continue taking their policing responsibilities seriously by utilizing a range of operational, investigative and intelligence tools in their daily activities but not for spying purposes.

Huawei Telecom last week formally protested to the Wall Street Journal over what they said was a false report by the publication.

The company said the article was a fabrication aimed at tarnishing its reputation and threatening its businesses across the world.