Intrusive spyware targeting prominent investigative Ugandan journalists has prompted Olive to believe that external countries could be behind a recent spying scandal.
Together with Fatboy and Olive, The Fatboy Show hosts were talking about Israeli Pegasus spy app, which has allegedly been used for invading the privacy of local television investigative journalists including Canary Mugume and Raymond Mujuni.
According to Mugume, he received a notification from Apple warning him of state-sponsored attackers, and admitted to having received suspicious notifications on his phone such as non-existent new messages on his Telegram and Twitter, as well as his phone calls abruptly dropping.
However according to reports, the app is sold only to state security agencies of democratic states to track activities of terrorists and other security-related threats.
This amazed Fatboy who said that many people thought the NBS Television journalist Mugume was somewhat friendly to the government, leading him to question the intent of the security agencies and if they were targeting him.
“If Pegasus is used by security agencies, could it be Ugandan or external government agencies? Because in July a report came out that Rwanda wire-tapped some officials in the Ugandan government. So if the government was spying on the journalists, it would be Canary and not Raymond because Raymond, like many other investigative journalists, has been known to be against the government,” Olive argued.
Additionally, Fatboy said that the software was on the market for sometime and also sold by some private companies. He said parents purchased it to keep track of their children and it was even more popular among couples. Fatboy, asked by Olive if he had ever purchased the app, responded, “Once upon a time, I was so much in love but also insecure and afraid of losing her. I considered and researched it but didn't go ahead with it,” he revealed.
Olive, during the show, also narrated a friend’s husband who would randomly call and ask his wife why she was in places she wasn’t supposed to be yet he was in another country. She revealed how partners spying on each other is a common behaviour yet it's one that could send a person to their grave early.
The Fatboy show is hosted by James Onen aka Fatboy, Olive, Sarah and Lesham every weekday from 6am to 10am on RX Radio.