On January 13, 2026, the digital lights went out across Uganda. Two days before the general election, Kampala ordered an internet shutdown, a move that has become a weary ritual in the political calendar under the ruling National Resistance Movement (NRM). This was the third consecutive election cycle in which the government has pulled the plug, but this time the timing is different.
It is what we might call a “pre-close.” It evokes the film Minority Report, in which a “PreCrime” unit arrests people before they act, based on seers’ visions. The Ugandan government has adopted a digital version of this philosophy.
