Examining Rising Repression in East Africa - Uganda: Exporting Repression

Are All African Autocratic Leaders in the Same WhatsApp Group? Examining Rising Repression in East Africa

The political landscape in East Africa has undergone a dramatic shift. Once considered leaders in driving regional stability and democratic reform, the region’s founding countries (Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda) are now experiencing an upsurge of state-led repression. Rising disappearances, state-sponsored abduction, sham elections, internet shutdowns, media gags, and weaponization of the law against ordinary people and dissidents have created a borderless federation of repression. The tactics are cross-border, and the leadership support each other's efforts and protect their interests. The question for young East Africans is whether the East African autocrats are all in one WhatsApp group.

Through country-specific sessions and a culminating public conversation, this webinar series will:

• Analyze the shared rise of the authoritarian playbook across East Africa and how that mirrors other authoritarian regimes and networks globally.
• Explore how surveillance capitalism, censorship and other aspects of technology are reshaping the authoritarian landscape.
• Foster interdisciplinary discussion on the future of civic resistance, regional justice, and international accountability.
• Connect the Harvard community with leading individuals, frontline activists, legal experts, and journalists from the region.

Uganda: Exporting Repression

Museveni’s government wrote the initial chapter of the playbook of repression: perfecting lawfare, cracking down on transnational opposition and using abductions to crack down on dissent. He is also allegedly providing armed militia to the new autocrats in training in both Kenya and Tanzania.