*A warning to anyone finding fault with the president of Uganda: You will be jailed. A Ugandan TikToker (Emmanuel Nabugodi) is learning a hard lesson after a video he made resulted in time behind bars.
BBC News, Kampala reports the clip was said to insult President Yoweri Museveni.
Nabugodi was sentenced to 32 months in jail on Nov. 19, after pleading guilty the previous week to four charges. Those charges include including hate speech and spreading malicious information about the president.
At the heart of the sentencing is a film Nabugodi created of a mock trial of the head of state. In the video, the social media user, who is known for sharing funny material with his 20,000 followers, called for Museveni’s public flogging.
Overall, Nabugodi was convicted under a controversial 2022 amendment to the Computer Misuse Act. Under the amendment, it is 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.”
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During Nabugodi’s sentencing, Stellah Maris Amabilis, the chief magistrate of the court in Entebbe, made his views known, telling the 21-year-old he was not sorry 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, adding that Nabugodi had the right to appeal against the sentence within 14 days.
Nabugodi’s sentencing makes him the latest Ugandan-based Tiktoker to suffer legal consequences related to criticizing Museveni. The BBC cites a six-year sentence that was handed down to Edward Awebwa in July for similar charges related to a TikTok post.
Three other users are currently awaiting trial over content posted on the social media app.
In 2022, award-winning Ugandan author Kakwenza Rukirabashaija was charged with two counts of “offensive communication” after taking to Twitter to make unflattering remarks about Museveni and his son. After a month of being tortured in jail, the writer fled to Germany.
Restrictions on freedom of speech as well as human rights and freedom of expression are nothing new in Uganda.
The issues have generated complaints from civil rights groups alleging that Museveni, who has been in power since 1986, does not tolerate criticism.
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