A Ugandan TikToker jailed for Insulting the President

A court in Uganda has sentenced a 24-year-old man to six years in prison for insulting the president and his family through his video posted on TikTok.

Edward Awebwa was charged with hate speech and spreading “misleading and malicious” information against President Yoweri Museveni, First Lady Janet Museveni and his son Muhoozi Kainerugaba, who is the head of the army.

The court was also informed that Awebwa had made misleading statements – saying there would be an increase in taxes under President Museveni.

He pleaded guilty and apologized.

The presiding judge said that although he pleaded for leniency, he did not appear to regret his actions, and the words used in the video were “very vulgar”.

“The defendant deserves a punishment that will enable him to learn from his past life so that in the future he will respect the personality of the president, the first wife and the first son,” said judge Stella Maris Amabilis.

He was sentenced to six years in prison for each of the four charges against him, which will run concurrently.

Human rights organizations regularly criticize the Ugandan authorities for violating human rights and freedom of expression.

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

He escaped to Germany after spending a month in prison, where he claimed he was tortured.

Activist and writer Stella Nyanzi, who is also in exile, was once imprisoned after publishing a poem critical of Mr Museveni.

President Museveni has been in power since 1986 – 14 years before Awebwa was born.

In 2022 he signed into law an anti-speech bill that human rights groups criticized, saying it aimed to stifle free expression online.

Last year, the constitutional court ruled that a provision of the law that was used to punish the offense of “offensive communications” was unconstitutional.

Ugandan human rights lawyer Michael Aboneka said Awebwa has been charged under the same law which they are still challenging in court because it is “unintelligible”.

He told the BBC’s Newsday program that the president and his family should expect criticism “in any form”.

“Unless they say that they will arrest every Ugandan citizen for criticizing them at every step,” he said.