TikToker jailed for 32 months for insulting president

A 21-year-old has become the latest Ugandan TikToker to be sent to prison after creating a video that was said to insult President Yoweri Museveni.

Emmanuel Nabugodi appeared for the sentencing on Monday after pleading guilty last week to four charges, including hate speech and spreading malicious information about the president.

He was sentenced to 32 months in jail.

Nabugodi, known for sharing comedy content to his 20,000 followers, made a film of a mock trial of the head of state. In it he called for Museveni’s public flogging.

Rights groups have frequently complained about restrictions on the freedom of speech in the country, alleging that the president – in power since 1986 – does not tolerate criticism.

In July, Edward Awebwa was handed a six-year sentence on similar charges to Nabugodi regarding a TikTok post. Three others are awaiting trial over content on the social media app.

When handing down Nabugodi’s sentence, Stellah Maris Amabilis, the chief magistrate of the court in Entebbe, said he was not remorseful and the sentence would help prevent social media attacks against people including the person of the president.

“This court hopes that by the time the convict leaves prison, he would have learnt that abusing people in the name of getting content is bad,” she said.

She added that he had the right to appeal against the sentence within 14 days.

He was convicted under a controversial amendment in 2022 to the Computer Misuse Act.

It made it illegal to “write, send, or share any information through a computer, which is likely to ridicule, degrade, or demean another person, group of persons, a tribe, an ethnicity, a religion or gender”.

In its human rights report on Uganda last year, the US State Department said the “authorities used this law to intimidate internet users from criticizing government policies”.

Rights groups also regularly denounce the Ugandan authorities over violations of human rights and the freedom of expression.

In 2022, award-winning Ugandan author Kakwenza Rukirabashaija was charged with two counts of “offensive communication” after making unflattering remarks about the president and his son on Twitter.

He fled the country to Germany after spending a month in jail, where he said he had been tortured.