Johannesburg – Controversial Makerere University research fellow, Dr Stella Nyanzi, has been charged with calling Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni “a pair of buttocks”.
Nyanzi was arrested last Friday in Kampala and held in custody in Kira Divisional Police Headquarters.
On Monday she was arraigned before Buganda Road Magistrate’s court after being driven there in a convoy of security cars, Uganda’s Daily Monitor reported.
Nyanzi was charged in relation to the alleged offensive Facebook posts she made about Museveni.
The two charges outlined include cyber harassment and offensive communication contrary to section 25 of the Computer Misuse Act 2011.
In the first count, the prosecution alleges that Dr Nyanzi on January 28 made a suggestion or proposal referring to His Excellency Yoweri Kaguta Museveni as among others “a pair of buttocks” which suggestion/proposal is obscene or indecent.
In the second count, the prosecution added that Dr Nyanzi “between January 2017 and march 2017 in Kampala district willfully and repeatedly used electronic communication to post messages offensive in nature via Facebook, transmitted over the internet to disturb or attempted to disturb the peace, quiet or right of privacy of his excellency the President of Uganda, Yoweri Kaguta Museveni with no purpose of legitimate communication.”
In 2016 Nyanzi made regional and international headlines when she stripped almost naked at Makerere University in protest at a disciplinary hearing against her by the University following a dispute with another staff member.