By Mulengera Reporters
For expressing himself in a manner considered offensive to the President and his son, eminent journalist Joseph Kabuleta continues to be detained at a yet to be disclosed police facility. And management at his Watchman Ministries Church says equally missing and unaccounted for is his close church ministry associate Godwin Matsiko Muhwezi.
Police publicist Fred Enanga says Kabuleta is being held by Special Investigations Department (SID) of CIID for orchestrating “offensive communication against the person of the President” contrary to section 25 of Computer Misuse Act (in force since 2011).
Yet Kabuleta is merely the latest to be caged under the CMA in a long list of social media users who have had to be put on trial for offending the President and other Ugandans like labor exportation firm Middle East Consultants MD Gordon Mugyenyi in whose interest city blogging journalist Pidson Kareire was on 2nd June 2019 arrested and charged before being released on bail.
Besides Kabuleta and Kareire, many other social media-using Ugandans have faced police wrath including Dr. Stella Nyanzi who has been languishing in Luzira since November last year for using her Facebook account to liken the President to “a pair of buttocks.”
Nyanzi, who also lost her Makerere job over what authorities termed inappropriate use of social media, declined being released on bail saying she would all the same be arrested again since she doesn’t intend to denounce her right to express her dissent over the way Uganda is being governed.
MP Betty Nambooze was also arrested and charged for the discomforting way in which she used her Facebook space to express her sentiments regarding the circumstances under which Arua MP Ibrahim Abiriga and his brother Saidi Butele Kongo were assassinated in Kawanda.
Much earlier on, Charles Rwomushana was also kept in custody at Kireka-based SID headquarters after he used his Facebook account to accuse the state of murdering Christopher Aine who later emerged dispelling reports that he had been assassinated to avenge his loyalty to 2016 Presidential candidate Amama Mbabazi.
MWENDA’S TAKE
Diaspora-based Peng Peng (aka Raymond Soufa), Nasser Mugerwa, Jane Kuli, Robert Shaka (purported to be TVO) and more recently Andrew Mukasa Bajjo were also indicted under the same CMA. This continued sanctioning of citizens ostensibly for (annoyingly) criticizing public officials, including the President, has attracted criticisms from many people including Mr. Museveni’s renowned allies. For instance, media entrepreneur Andrew Mwenda (a renowned Museveni defender) says the practice of coming hard on social media users bashing the H.E. is “archaic, intolerable, unacceptable” and makes Mr. Museveni seem like an infallible medieval monarch as opposed to being a president presiding over a modern-day republic.
Mwenda, who in 2005 successfully challenged sections of the Penal Code Act which created the offense of sedition and thereby shield the person of the President in more less the same way CMA does, urges his idol Museveni to get used to being criticized because angering him is a right that must always be available to citizens including at times when there is no justification for such criticism to be directed at him.
Writing on twitter, Mwenda argued power belongs to the people on whose behalf Museveni governs Uganda making it in order for them to subject him to endless criticisms regardless of whether is doing a good job or not.
Back then Mwenda was put to trial in the Magistrates court for using his KFM show to criticize the President after refusing to accept the state narrative regarding the circumstances under which Sudanese VP John Garang died on his way from a meeting with President Museveni. On that day, Mwenda hosted then very influential Museveni private secretary Moses Byaruhanga in whose face he made many derogatory utterances about Museveni’s suitability to rule Uganda including this one: “You see these African Presidents. This man [M7] went to University. Why can’t he behave like an educated person? Why does he behave like a villager?”
On being put to trial, Mwenda rushed to Constitutional Court challenge the constitutionality of the offence of sedition (against the President) for which he was being prosecuted. The Justices were very clear that it was unconstitutional to put any citizen to trial merely for “bringing hatred or contempt and exciting disaffection against the person of the President or his government.”
Represented by (now) Justice Kenneth Kakuru (then a private lawyer), the East African Media Institute joined Mwenda’s Constitutional petition. LDC lecturer James Nangwala represented Mwenda. The petitioners made many compelling arguments including one that led late Justice Leticia Kikonyogo (one of the justices on the panel) to hold that criticizing leaders (rightly or wrongly) is a right whose enjoyment court must always protect in a free and democratic country that Uganda purports to be. On the prompting of lawyer Kakuru, Kikonyogo added that its prudent for leaders to develop “thick skins” in anticipation of being criticized rightly and improperly.
The state obligation to protect (and not constrain) enjoyment of such political rights is resident not only in the Constitution but also in the international instruments (e.g. the Convention for Civil & Political Rights) and others Uganda has been ratifying over the years.
OTHER CURPLITS
Other Ugandans on the police watchlist over the offensive use of social media to express themselves (under the CMA) include socialite Shanita Namuyimba (aka Bad Black) who was previously interrogated for posting a video claiming President Museveni impregnated and forced her to abort. Black was protesting what she called persecution of Bobi Wine following the Arua fracas.
Others are Kanoni Gomba resident Joseph Kasumba (aged 19) who area DPC Robert Kuzaara detained for contemptuously calling the President Bosco using his social media account and the musical duo of Jonah Muhanguzi and David Mugema who in December 2017 were charged for using social media to promoter their song which was critical of the President.
Moses Nsubuga (aka Viboyo), a musician, was also caged at Jinja Road Police Station for using social media to promote a song in which police perceived him as directing obscenities at political leaders including President Museveni and Speaker Kadaga. Prior to that, FDC activist Swaibu Nsamba Gwogyolonga was held for cyber harassment and offensive communication after he posted on his Facebook what he claimed was President Museveni’s body.
In July and October 2018, Hope Murangira and Susan Namata were respectively arraigned before Buganda Road Magistrates Court for cyber harassment and offensive communication after they recorded and circulated videos threatening to harm the President while agitating against what they perceived as mistreatment of Bobi Wine.
KATUREBE ROLE
As Chief Justice and overall head of the Judiciary arm of government, Bart Katurebe can use the administrative levers at his disposal to demonstrate that Ugandans who welcomed his ascendance to the lucrative office didn’t jubilate in vain.
Many hoped that the administrative lapses, many of them deliberate, that constrained delivery of justice in the years preceding his appointment would end the moment he took charge. For instance, there are important governance-related petitions that have been filed in the Constitutional Court (headed by DCJ Alfonse Owing Dollo) challenging the Constitutionality of laws like the Computer Misuse Act (CMA) and others being used to constrain the enjoyment of Constitutionally-guaranteed rights.
Perhaps because their filing isn’t something the state is comfortable with; these petitions have never been heard. This is something over which the entire Judiciary (whose funding was recently increased) should be very embarrassed. For instance, on getting prosecuted under CMA for announcing the President’s death on social media, Swaibu Nsamba Gwogyolonga teamed up with others and petitioned Constitutional Court which under Article 137 is mandated to interpret the constitutionality of state enactments and actions. They are specifically challenging CMA on grounds it contravenes expression rights under Article 29 of the Constitution.
Yet that isn’t all Justice Katurebe ought to look himself into the mirror about. As early as April 2017, another group of activists operating under Unwanted Witnesses (aggrieved by provisions of the Computer Misuse Act), petitioned Constitutional Court challenging the constitutionality of CMA. It was registered as constitutional petition No. 15 of 2017 but today, almost three (3) years later, the petition has never been heard. Mulengera News investigations indicate no action has ever been taken on the matter, prompting some lawyers to accuse the Judiciary of increasingly growing timid on cases discomforting to the state.
In 2013, another petition was filed in the same Constitutional Court challenging the Public Order Management Act (POMA), likening it to retrospective legislation aimed at neutralizing the gains made in the Muwanga Kivumbi petition challenging sections of the police Act. Actually the 1995 Constitution (or whatever remains of it) explicitly prohibits retrospective legislation aimed at re-enacting sections of the law that have been struck down as invalid/unconstitutional through court decisions. All this delay in hearing constitutionally-important matters is reminiscent of Ag CJ Steven Kavuma’s days when petitions and cases considered politically sensitive would often be shelved never to be brought up for hearing.
Gratefully, there is a lot Justice Katurebe can do using his levers as CJ to ensure whoever is concerned gets down to doing their work and have such constitutionally very important matters heard or at the very least call a news conference updating the country regarding what happened-and giving justification why matters so important to citizens can remain deliberately unheard for such a long time. In the alternative, as head of the Judiciary, Katurebe can prompt Owiny Dollo as head Constitutional Court to account to the citizens. Is it the lack of human and financial resources? Whatever it is, the citizens have a right to know and be accounted to. (For comments, call, text or whatsapp us on 0703164755 or email us at mulengera2040@gmail.com).
