A man appears frustrated using his phone. PHOTO/COURTESY
Nothing brings so much joy as realising you are not suffering alone. Misery really does love company. I have told my friends that if someone ever organises a peaceful demonstration about how fast data bundles deplete, we had probably earn ourselves a week-long public holiday. I mean, this is a national crisis.
I remember how we all got excited when that picture of the President meeting a certain team dropped, people were already designing posters saying New Uganda Loading. We thought next month we had be streaming Netflix in 4K, but alas, we are still stuck watching YouTube in almost 2K but with a budget of 4K.
You see, in this country, data isn’t a luxury, it is a basic need. It is right up there with posho, rent, and peace of mind. Data is therapy.
You have had a bad day? Log in and scroll through your TL or fyp someone’s drama will make you feel better. You are stressed about a government policy? Go online, type one angry thread, and suddenly your spirit starts to heal. The internet is our national group therapy. Like we all know, our battle ground is too bad that even when we are protesting the depletion rate of the internet data bundles , we still do it online after reloading the same provider we are going to troll.
But the problem is, we are being priced out of our own sanity. These service providers treat data like it’s liquid gold. You load 10k, open one reel, and before you can even finish laughing, they are already whispering, your bundle balance is too low to complete this action. And now, even the big boys are crying with us. The latest to join the oppressed masses was none other than the former minister of ICT himself, who has since migrated to Agriculture Ministry.
He went on X (formerly Twitter) to demand answers about the bundle madness. It must have taken him being in Agriculture to know what we have been going through. Ugandans wasted no time reminding him of his past promises especially that time he vowed free Wi-Fi around Kampala. The replies were pure comedy, again on the same bundles, people sent him to go use his free wifi . At this rate, we might just need a few more serious service providers to come rescue us or at least give us bundles that last longer than a view once.
*Written by Mark Peter Sseggiriinya
