Huawei denies reports of intercepting Bobi Wine’s messages in Uganda
By Amina WakoHuawei Kenya has denied reports that Huawei technicians helped authorities in Uganda to intercept encrypted messages using spyware to penetrate a WhatsApp chat group in which musician-cum-politician Bobi Wine is a member.
Dalmar Abdi, the senior Public Relations Director at Huawei Kenya said an internal investigation conducted by the company had revealed that Huawei and its employees were not involved.
“Our internal investigation shows clearly that Huawei and its employees have not been engaged in any of the activities alleged. We have neither the contracts, nor the capabilities, to do so,” said Abdi in a statement.
The America-based Wall Street Journal on Thursday reported that Huawei employees used the company’s technology and other company products to support the domestic spying of certain governments.
CRACK SQUAD
But Huawei says this is not true. “We have never sold safe city solutions in either Zambia or Algeria and we have conducted no business with Zambia’s Cybercrime Crack Squad, for example. We have never been engaged in ‘hacking’ activities,” added Abdi.
The company went on to explain that their code of business conduct prohibits its employees from undertaking any activities that would compromise their customers or end users data or privacy or that would breach any laws.
“Huawei prides itself on its compliance with local regulations and laws in all markets where it operates and will defend its reputation robustly in the face of such baseless allegations,” the statement read.
The WSJ report had claimed that Ugandan authorities used messages in the WhatsApp group to thwart plans for street rallies and arrested Wine and dozens of his supporters.