By Benadeta Mwaura - Reporter
Uganda, 23 December 2025 - In late December 2025, just weeks before Uganda’s national elections, a quiet but powerful memo sent ripples through the continent’s tech and political circles, Starlink satellite internet equipment would require military clearance to be imported or cleared through customs.
For many Ugandans, the decision felt less about cables and more about control, of information, access, and influence.
In a country where digital tools have become central to political organisation, news, and activism, restricting a technology that enables independent connectivity sent a clear message, communication is now political terrain.
Opposition leader Bobi Wine criticised the Starlink import restrictions on social media, writing on X that “if they’re not planning … electoral fraud, why are they so scared of people accessing the internet during the electoral process.” The leaked Uganda Revenue Authority memo itself stated, “This communication serves to officially notify staff about the immediate restriction on the importation and customs clearance of Starlink technology gadgets, communication equipment and associated components,” and added that import declarations would now require clearance from the Chief of Defence Forces before customs release
Bobi wine together with rights advocates and opposition figures, viewed it as a pre emptive effort to control internet access ahead of voting, echoing past actions in 2021 when internet blackouts occurred during contentious elections.
Starlink does not yet have an official operating licence in Uganda, but many Ugandans have imported the equipment and used it privately.
By imposing military level clearance for communication technology, Uganda’s approach underscores how internet access can become a geopolitical and electoral tool, especially where widespread social media and independent connectivity can enable rapid information sharing.
Ugandan ban was also faced by South Africans
In South Africa, Musk publicly complained on social media that his Starlink service was barred from entering the market because he was “not Black,” framing the country’s Broad Based Black Economic Empowerment (BEE) requirements as discriminatory.
South African officials rejected that interpretation, saying the real issue was legal compliance with existing transformation laws, not race.
South Africa’s Electronic Communications Act traditionally required foreign telecoms operators to allocate 30 % of local equity to historically disadvantaged groups to obtain licences, a key hurdle for many foreign entrants.
But in December 2025, the government revised the rules, allowing companies like Starlink instead to meet affirmative action goals through “equity equivalent” programmes, such as skills development and community investment, rather than direct shareholding.
This move is intended to balance transformation objectives with the need for expanded broadband access, particularly in underserved rural areas.
While Starlink still needs to complete licensing and operational setup in South Africa, the regulatory shift could open the door for broader deployment in one of the continent’s largest and most strategic internet markets.
When Elon Musk’s SpaceX launched Starlink in Africa in 2023, it promised to bring high speed, low latency internet to communities previously constrained by weak networks and limited broadband access.
Starlink’s constellation of low Earth orbit satellites, marketed as a way to bridge the digital divide, has since expanded across much of the continent.
But nearly three years in, the reality on the ground is a complex mix of market disruption, technical challenges, regulatory friction and political tensions.
Starlink arrived in Kenya in July 2023 with a splash, quickly gaining subscriptions by offering connectivity in areas poorly served by traditional fibre and mobile broadband.
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Within months it captured an estimated 1.1 % of Kenya’s fixed internet market, ranking among the country’s top internet service providers based on subscriber counts.
However, that early momentum hit a major obstacle in November 2024, when Starlink paused new subscriptions in Nairobi and surrounding counties, including Kiambu, Machakos, Kajiado and Murang’a, citing network overcapacity.
The company explained that too many potential users were trying to connect, risking degraded service for existing customers.
That pause lasted many months, leaving people who had bought Starlink hardware waiting for activation. It also slowed Starlink’s growth and cut into its subscriber base.
Between late 2024 and March 2025, Starlink lost over 2,000 users in Kenya, seeing its market share dip from 1.1 % to below 1 % and dropping from seventh to eighth place among ISPs.
Despite deploying a local ground station in Nairobi in early 2025, which cut latency and improved speeds measured by testing firms, Starlink’s urban capacity constraints remained a limiting factor.
This technical reality, satellite networks can only handle so much traffic per coverage area, highlighted the challenge of scaling satellite broadband in densely populated cities.
Meanwhile, local rivals seized the opportunity. Safaricom’s 5G offerings surged, adding tens of thousands of fixed broadband subscribers with lower prices and aggressive marketing, eroding Starlink’s appeal among urban users looking for cheaper or more reliable local service.
Starlink’s pricing, with equipment often costing thousands of shillings upfront and monthly fees that are multiple times that of local fibre or 5G plans, has also kept widespread adoption limited, especially among cost sensitive users.
Starlink’s African expansion mirrors a broader industry push to close connectivity gaps in rural and remote regions where fibre networks have failed to reach.
Starlink has already signed partnerships with major regional players such as Airtel Africa, which plans to roll out direct to cell satellite coverage across 14 markets in 2026, enabling basic text messaging and data directly via satellite to compatible phones without traditional cellular infrastructure.
Such partnerships could be transformative in places where mobile reception is patchy or absent, tying satellite networks to everyday smartphone use. But these advancements are still unfolding and largely future oriented.
Starlink’s journey in Africa illustrates the promise and peril of satellite internet.
Its technology has the potential to deliver reliable broadband where infrastructure is absent, but network capacity limits, regulatory dynamics, political contexts and fierce competition from local providers have tempered its growth.
As partnerships like Airtel Africa’s direct to cell initiative expand, and policy shifts in countries like Uganda and South Africa take effect, the true impact of satellite internet in Africa may still be emerging.
Starlink’s experience is a reminder that technology alone cannot overcome the complex, socio economic and regulatory realities that characterise connectivity on the continent.
