Young supporters of president Yoweri Museveni of Uganda have developed a mobile App to raise his profile among the young.
It’s a quiz game, called Sevo and based on Museveni’s private and political life.
The developers are hoping it’ll help Museveni win votes in next year’s elections.
Uganda’s President Yoweri Museveni is known as ‘Sevo’ by many young people in his country.
Philbert Kagangure developed the App and the reson behind it for him is to trigger young people’s minds.
He says, ”technology has taken over the system, people are using smart phones, smart phones have become very active, so we want to give people an opportunity to have information on their phone about their president.”
The App is a quiz game
It has one subject ‘The president’ with questions, such as when did he marry his wife Janet – and what book he wrote as a soldier in the bush.
With this App which is basically a game, there are no prizes to be won ,but for the ruling party there could be a lot to play for.
About 80% of Uganda’s population is below the age of 45 and the developers think the App will encourage them to vote for Museveni when he seeks a fifth term, next year.
Kagangure says: “When the application is on their phones they the young people especially will spend more time on phones and when they are using applications like Whatsapp and Facebook they will have time to also type Sevo App and enjoy it and that will bring out our president as a techno-serve president and definitely this will be a game-changer for Museveni.”
In 2011 Museveni recorded a rap song that won him popularity among many young Ugandans.
He has also recently opened a twitter account where he tweets to potential voters.
Political analysts say technology increasingly is becoming a tool for political mobilization in Africa. But some say the Sevo app doesn’t address problems affecting Ugandans
The Sevo App is due to launch next month. The Museveni team has not yet embraced the ‘sevo app’ as part of their campaign.
uBut communication technology could well play a key role in Uganda’s 2016 elections.
