The Uganda Communications Commission (UCC) was established under the legal framework of the Uganda Communications Act No. 1 of 1997 and the Electronic Media Act of 1996.
The primary mandate of UCC is to regulate the Communications sector, which includes Telecommunications, Broadcasting, radio communication, postal communications, data communication and infrastructure services throughout Uganda.
UCC is also tasked with the responsibility of licensing operations of cinematography theatres and video or film libraries in Uganda.
However, UCC seems to be ‘sleeping’ on job as hundreds of Ugandans keep losing their money dubiously.
It is illegal in Uganda to have a SIM Card which is not fully registered by the use of a National Identity Card, Passport or refugee ID for the case of refugees.
However, Eyewitness24 conducted an investigation throughout various parts of the country especially in Kampala and found out that most people actually use pre-registered SIM cards.
Pre-registered SIM cards are freely sold in Kampala and some other parts of the country like Mukono, Wakiso, Mbarara and Jinja among others.
These cards are used by criminals in cyber crimes which involves hacking into mobile money operators and wire money onto these lines.
Many mobile money operators especially in busy city and urban areas have fallen prey to this trend and Police arrests these criminals almost on a daily basis but the damage is indelible!
One wonders why UCC watches on as these lines which are used in criminal activities are sold freely around the country especially in Kampala.
Many Eritreans, Ethiopians, Somalis, and Pakistanis plus other foreigners living and working in Uganda (some illegally) prefer not to use their documents to register while acquiring SIM cards, many use these pre-registered SIM cards.
Of course, Telecom operators have a hand in this because it works for them businesswise albeit its illegality.
Telecom operators cash in on every SIM card sold, but the more cards sold, the more the revenues for the company through airtime, data and other transactions done through the cards.
Telecom consumers continue to be cheated through dropped calls, unclear data depletion, inconsistencies in withdrawal & payment charges, unclear deductions on mobile money balance among others.
Meanwhile, despite the signing into law of the Computer misuse act, many Ugandans continue to abuse the freedom of speech and media freedom in the country by continuously using abusive and foul language, posting explicit images especially on TikTok among others.
UCC has never come out to warn such people nor caused any arrests to this effect.
Many local TV Stations air programs with damaging content which does not depict the true values, norms and culture of Uganda; UCC is not on record to have penalized any Station.
Despite the fact that pornography is illegal in the country through the Anti-Pornography Act, pornography is highly accessible in Uganda and UCC has not put up parameters to protect consumers especially the underage group.
Mr George William Nyombi Thembo, the Executive Director of UCC certainly has an uphill task which needs a vigorous approach.
