Makerere Lecturer Dr. Stella Nyanzi Charged with Cyber Harassment
Makerere University Research fellow Dr. Stella Nyanzi has been charged with cyber harassment and offensive talk against President Yoweri Museveni and the first family.
The charges arise from a series of Facebook Posts that the controversial researcher has been running, most of which attack the person of the President and the First Lady, Hon. Janet Kataaha Museveni.
Dr. Nyanzi was arrested on Saturday and detained at Kiira Division Police from where he was arraigned before the Buganda Road magistrates Court on Monday Afternoon.
State argues that she, in her publications acted in contravention to Section 24 of the Computer Misuse Act of 2011 and Section 25 of the same Act that controls use of Offensive Communication.
According to the court charge sheet which PC Tech Magazine is in possession of, Dr. Nyanzi “on January 28 this year used a computer to post on her Facebook page, a suggestion or proposal referring President Yoweri Museveni as among others, a pair of buttocks, which proposal is obscene or indecent.”
“Stella 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 the peace, quiet or right of privacy of the President,” the statement further reads.
The same cases have led to the suspension of Dr. Nyanzi from Makerere University, for the second in a period of less than one year.
He has not been allowed to make any plea as per the charges read to her although state argues that she suffers a mental disorder.
They have since prayed for an order of detention for a fortnight to check her mental state.[related-posts]
