Yoweri Museveni
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Ugandan Feminine Activist jailed 18 months for criticizing Museveni
- By solomon2day
- On 07/11/2019
Frontline feminine activist and university lecturer, Stella Nyanzi has bagged an 18 month jail term for criticising Uganda's President Yoweri Museveni.Nyanzi had through a facebook post carpeted Museveni's 33 year rule.
In her reaction Director for East Africa, Amnesty International, Joan Nyanyuki said that “Stella Nyanzi has been criminalised solely for her creative flair of using metaphors and what may be considered insulting language to criticise President Museveni’s leadership''.
“The mere fact that forms of expression are considered insulting to a public figure is not sufficient ground to penalize anyone. Public officials, including those exercising the highest political authority, are legitimately subject to criticism and political opposition.”
“This verdict is outrageous and flies in the face of Uganda’s obligations to uphold the right to freedom of expression for all people in Uganda and demonstrates the depths of the government’s intolerance of criticism,”
“It must be quashed and Stella Nyanzi, who has already suffered enormously for expressing her opinions, left to get on with her life.
“The Ugandan authorities must scrap the Computer Misuse Act 2011 which has been used systematically to harass, intimidate and stifle government critics like Stella Nyanzi.”
Anyanzi was arrested and detained in prison on 2 November 2018, two weeks after she posted a birthday poem considered to be abusive against the President.
The acitivist has already spent 9 months in prison.
