The Human Rights Watch (HRW) has urged the Government of Uganda to scrap-off the new surveillance system which it said violates the privacy of individuals.

According to HRW, Uganda’s new surveillance system violates people’s right to privacy and extremely jeopardizes their ability to exercise their freedoms of expression and association.

“Uganda’s new surveillance system, which allows the government to track the real time location of all vehicles in the country, undermines privacy rights, and creates serious risks to the rights to freedom of association and expression HRW said that the system ought to be abandoned by the government,” HRW stated.

Oryem Nyeko, a researcher at HRW on November 14, 3023, said that the government should focus on protecting its citizens’ rights instead of abusing them.

“Uganda’s new transport surveillance system amounts to unchecked mass surveillance of all vehicles at all times, undermining the right to privacy for millions of Ugandans. The government should focus on protecting its citizens’ rights instead of abusing them,” Oryem said.

The government has limited public scrutiny of the technical system and its capabilities and the contract with the Russian company delivering the project, and has published no plans for oversight and human rights mitigation around the project.

On November 1, 2023, the government officially launched the   Intelligent Transport Monitoring System (ITMS) project that will see Uganda vehicle fitted with electronic number plates to address national security issues.

Following President Museveni’s unveiling of a nine-point security plan in 2018, the government has gradually increased its surveillance capabilities in response to a string of high-profile political and government figures being killed by identified people riding on motorcycles. Electronic license plates were one of the proposed policies, which he said would make it easier for law enforcement to find the owners of cars found to have been at crime scenes.