KAMPALA, Uganda — Uganda's Public Enemy No. 1, Joseph Kony, became an overnight Internet sensation to the rest of the world this week, but many here knew little or nothing about the explosive online campaign.
Internet access was one reason. Only 10 percent of Ugandans use the Internet, and Web traffic is slowed by routine power failures and poor maintenance. Many young residents of the capital are computer savvy, but even for them downloading a 30-minute video like the one that Invisible Children, a San Diego charity, created would be a frustrating exercise.
"It is there, I have seen it on my wall, but I haven't had time," Adam Seif, 23, a business student at Kampala International University who is plugged into the social-networking scene, said of the "KONY 2012" video, which has attracted more than 70 million views on YouTube since it was posted on Monday.
Among expatriates and plugged-in Ugandans here, the video has become the subject of animated discussions, with debates breaking out over the accuracy of the online campaign and the intentions of the charity that prepared it.
Few were thrilled with all the attention.
The rebel movement that Mr. Kony leads, the Lord's Resistance Army, began in northern Uganda more than two decades ago but shifted its operations from there to other nations in central Africa in recent years. Known for kidnapping children to bolster his ranks and for brutalizing the civilian population, Mr. Kony now operates principally in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Central African Republic and South Sudan.
Last year, the United States military sent 100 military advisers to the region to aid in the hunt for Mr. Kony.
But critics of the video contend that the movie misleads viewers by suggesting that the Lord's Resistance Army is still present in Uganda and that the rebel group counts up to 30,000 child soldiers in its ranks.
Analysts estimate the group's membership to be somewhere in the hundreds. While Mr. Kony's whereabouts are unknown, he is not believed to be in Uganda.
On the ground here, the conflict with the L.R.A. is no more. The chief city in the north, Gulu, where residents once lived in terror of Mr. Kony's rebel fighters, is today teeming with foreign aid workers who are helping to rehabilitate the area and private investors hoping to cash in on the boom.