By Stanley Ugagbe
Controversial Ugandan academic and activist Stella Nyanzi has been in police custody since November 2, 2018, for allegedly insulting President Yoweri Museveni and his late mother, Esteri Kokundeka.
The 42-year-old is being tried for violating the Computer Misuse Act sections on cyber harassment and “obscene, lewd, lascivious indecent” content production.
Nyanzi who has been on the spotlight since 2016 was apprehended on November 2, 2018 at the Makere University while she was protesting at the Institute of Social Research where she worked as a research personnel before her suspension.
According to her, she was protesting against the institute’s failure to reinstate her and pay all her salary arrears as ordered by a tribunal which was set up to investigate her suspension.
It would be recalled that during the time of her suspension in 2017, Nyazi staged a nude protest outside her locked up office and posted the video and images on her Facebook page.
The mother of three was arraigned for using abusive words against the president and his wife.
She was said to have called President Museveni “a pair of buttocks”. Reports also indicated that she faulted the First Lady, Janet Museveni and painted her incompetent in her role as the Nation’s minister of education.
If found guilty, she will dance to a rhythmic jail term of one year or a fine. Section 25 of the Computer Misuse Act 2011 Specifies that “any person who willfully and repeatedly uses electronic communication to disturb or attempts to disturb the peace, quiet or right of privacy of any person with no purpose of legitimate communication whether or not a conversation ensues commits a misdemeanor and is liable on conviction to a fine not exceeding one year or both”.
Not perturbed about the happenings, Nyanzi in a letter she wrote to a friend from detention, said: “Writing is a weapon …We shall fight their bullets and bribes with our prose and poetry. We shall defend ourselves with our pens and keyboards.”
