Uganda’s president Yoweri Museveni is in Kenya and is today giving a public lecture at the Kenyatta University.However many comrades protested his attending with free Stellah Nyanzi # reigning on twitter.
Dr Stellah Nyanzi has been in remand at Luzira Prison since November last year on charges of cyber harassment and offensive communication against President Yoweri Museveni.
She was fired from Makerere University last month in a massive ‘staff reshuffle’ that saw 45 senior academic staff shown the door.
According to the vice chancellor of university Prof Barnabas Nawangwe, the majority of the staff fired absconded duty for over five years and others were involved in sexual harassment cases.
In April 2016, on a balmy day in sunny Kampala, a protest was brewing in Makerere University, Uganda’s largest university
she was staging a half nude protest against Mahmood Mamdani, Director of Makerere Institute of Social Research after being locked out of her office for refusing to teach; a requirement outside of her contract.
Her protest was widely shared on social media, stirring nationwide commentaries. It also got her suspended from the university and her salary was reduced by half.
Early last year Uganda’s 1st lady Janet Museveni had announced in parliament that the government lacked the funds to fulfil the president’s election promise of providing sanitary pads to school girls.
Dr Nyanzi was livid, and stated: “What sort of malice plays in the heart of a woman who sleeps with a man who finds money for millions of bullets, billions of bribes and uncountable ballots to stuff into boxes but she cannot ask him to prioritise sanitary pads for poor schoolgirls? She is no Mama — she is just Janet!”
Upon being summoned to the Criminal Investigations Department over her comments, Dr Nyanzi urged her followers to turn up at the headquarters with sanitary pads. Her efforts prompted an online crowd sourcing campaign titled #Pads4GirlsUG with a team of volunteers vowing to fulfil the president’s broken promise. Over a million re-useable pads were distributed by the end of 2017.
On the night of 7 April, 2017, as she left the Rotary Club in Kampala after giving a talk, Dr Nyanzi was arrested by plainclothes police officers and held in custody and charged in court three days later. It was stated that she engaged in “cyber harassment” and “offensive communication” contrary to the Computer Misuse Act of 2011.
Stella embodies the terms “outspoken” and “fearless”. She is a Ugandan academic, mother, feminist, a forthright activist and a leading voice in the women’s rights movement. She campaigns for the rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex peoples