Edris Kisambira

Technology has taken a central role in Uganda's electoral process, with SMS campaigns, websites, so-called robocalls, and even a presidential rap on YouTube playing a part in political campaigns concluding this week ahead of elections today.

At the beginning of the election campaign, President Museveni did a rap song in one of the major local languages. An amateur video of Museveni performing the rap made its way to YouTube, with the aim of luring young people to vote for him, and has over 1.8 million views today. It was continuously linked to social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter.

Nokia has relaunched a recycling initiative aimed at enabling the 11 million mobile-phone users in Uganda to dispose of old and unwanted devices, chargers and mobile accessories.

The recycling was initially launched in Uganda in 2008 but was not a success. Nokia's phone-recycling initiative will help boost recycling efforts in Africa, where governments are actively looking for ways to find sustainable solutions to the increasing problem of electronic waste.

Residents of Kenya's Kibera, the largest slum settlement in sub-Saharan Africa, will have an opportunity to watch the FIFA 2010 World Cup live from South Africa, thanks to solar-power technology developed by youths in the slums, with technical assistance from Solafrica.ch, a Swiss-based, not-for-profit organization.

Kibera, situated in Nairobi, has a population of about 1 million people. Normally, residents of Kibera miss watching the World Cup due to lack of electricity, TV sets or money to subscribe to pay-TV channels.

Mountain-gorilla tracking in Uganda is hard work -- up steep slopes, through fascinating but dense terrain. It's not for the faint-hearted, but now an online project set to launch Saturday is helping to make gorilla spotting, a major source of tourism income, more accessible than ever.

Gorilla tracking requires a good level of fitness and patience. It's not cut out for tourists who want instant, easy viewing from the comfort of an air-conditioned jeep. For those with determination the reward sometimes is to be in the presence of one of the world's gentlest, rarest and most reclusive gentle giants.

Usage of Opera Software's mobile-phone Web browser, Opera Mini, is picking up quickly in Africa, having increased by 180 percent from January to September of this year.

"Month after month, we have witnessed our usage numbers in Africa skyrocket," Opera CEO Jon von Tetzchner said in a news statement. "This tells us that change is underway, and more people now have the ability to access the Internet from locations that were previously unthinkable."