Professor arrested after campaigning for schoolgirls’ needs
April 9, 2017
Uganda has arrested a prominent academic for criticising the wife of President Yoweri Museveni on social media, police said Saturday.
Stella Nyanzi criticised Janet Museveni, who is education minister, on Facebook after the government reneged on a campaign pledge to supply free sanitary pads to schoolgirls struggling to afford hygiene products.
Police spokesman Emilian Kayima confirmed that Nyanzi was taken into custody Friday and would appear in court Monday in Kampala on charges of cyber harassment and offensive communication under a 2011 law governing computer misuse.
“She kept posting issues, fighting battles on social media which we think does not serve her interests or ours,” Kayima said.
Last Monday, Janet Museveni said in a rare TV interview that she had “forgiven” Nyanzi, whose work specialises in the study of sexuality in Africa.
