Supporters of the National Unity Platform (NUP) have admitted to being recruited through social media platforms, where they are paid Ugx15,000 for each derogatory comment or post they make.
The National Unity Platform party leadership employs a team of over 300 social media personnel, who are generously compensated with Ugx.15,000 per comment and a monthly salary of Ugx.500,000. Their primary role is to vehemently criticise and target individuals on social media who express disagreement towards NUP.
According to a source, the NUP has chosen to engage in the political battle through social media. The party’s leadership has reportedly recruited 300 young individuals who are tasked with targeting and attacking anyone they perceive as an opponent.
“If you recall the exchange between Norbert Mao and NUP, where Mao declared himself a one-man army who would expose and fight back at all the lies peddled by NUP leadership and its supporters,” a source stated.
He observed that the individuals who promoted the Kunga, Bring Back Our People, Black November, One Million March, and other social media campaigns were all the same. He further mentioned that if one were to evaluate all the social media activities of the NUP, one would notice consistent patterns in posts, attacks, and language employed.
These individuals were directed to share disturbing images, which aimed to damage the reputation of government security agencies and accuse them of engaging in torture. The pictures included images of accident victims, including some from other countries, accompanied by captions that suggested the involvement of security agencies.
However, according to the source, some of these account holders defected to other parties due to the NUP leadership’s failure to fulfil their previous commitments. They complained about the delayed payment, although it is worth noting that the majority of them are primarily motivated by financial gain.
Additionally, he disclosed that their Twitter leader, Aiden Kaliisa, exhibited a lack of teamwork and consistently withheld the majority of their earnings instead of distributing fair payment to the team.
“When they quit, he chose to expose them by claiming that they work for the government; however, he forgot that they were recruited in 2020 and have been attacking people on behalf of the NUP for a long time, not this year like he claims,” stated the source.
“For Kaliisa to woo back most of his team members, he has indirectly suggested what they will be given this time round: Ugx 2,500,000 per month, a laptop, and a smartphone, in preparation for NUP’s unveiling their new party headquarters,” said the source.
For a while now, a targeted social media activism campaign has been underway, involving more than 700 pseudo accounts that are used to post, comment, and repost content daily without any repetitive content.
