Taxi driver Abdulhakim Kawenja checks his phone. His regular customers usually contact him via WhatsApp.Kawenja needs constant internet access, but in the past year that has become difficult. In July 2018, Uganda’s government introduced the “over-the-top” tax, commonly known as the social media tax, for online services such as WhatsApp, Facebook and Twitter.
For many young Ugandans who are critical of the government, boycotting the tax is a silent rebellion against the ruling party. In fact, the social media tax initiative came from President Yoweri Museveni personally. In early 2018, he complained that young people spent too much of their time on WhatsApp and other online applications and were responsible for spreading false information.
Kiiza is currently working on a class action law suit filed by journalists and rights groups at Uganda’s constitutional court. He’s hoping for a hearing soon. “One of the reasons that this tax was introduced is that we see more and more people using internet data for communication and therefore the telephone companies were losing revenue, as well as the government,” Vincent Semura from Uganda’s tax authority told DW.A year after the introduction of the tax, however, even Semura admits that the government overestimated the gains from the new tax. So far it has brought in just 17 % of the hoped-for revenue.