Uganda TikToker convicted for insulting president

Kampala – A Ugandan court has convicted a 21-year-old content creator for calling for the public flogging of President Yoweri Museveni on video-sharing platform TikTok, a state prosecutor said on Thursday.

Emmanuel Nabugodi, who created a video depicting a mock Museveni trial, faces up to seven years in prison for “spreading hate speech” against the head of state.

He pleaded guilty on Wednesday and was remanded in custody at the notorious Kigo maximum security prison near Kampala until November 18, when he will be sentenced.

State attorney Paul Aheebwa Byamukama said prosecutors have asked the Entebbe court to impose a seven-year sentence.

Nabugodi is the fourth Ugandan to appear in court and be remanded in custody in the last two days for insulting the president and his family.

In July, another 21-year-old TikToker was sentenced to six years in prison for insulting Museveni, who has ruled Uganda with an iron fist since he toppled president Milton Obote in 1986.

Award-winning author Kakwenza Rukirabashaija was arrested in late 2021 and charged with insulting Museveni and his powerful son Muhoozi Kainerugaba who many Ugandans believe is positioning himself to take over from his 80-year-old father.

Rukirabashaija was awarded the 2021 PEN Pinter Prize for an International Writer of Courage, which is presented annually to a writer who has been persecuted for speaking out about their beliefs.

He said he was tortured during his month-long detention in Uganda and fled into exile in Germany.

In 2020, four members of a comedy troupe were jailed when they released a video sarcastically calling on Ugandans to pray for their leaders, including Museveni, the police chief and the head of prisons.

At the time, the government was on edge ahead of the 2021 elections.

An online campaign demanding their release led to the charges being dropped.

Uganda ranks a lowly 128 out of 180 countries worldwide on the media watchdog Reporters without Borders press freedom index.