authorities should drop the abusive charges against a 24-year-old law student over a tweet, Human Rights Watch said today.
Michael Muhima was charged on May 14, 2021, with "offensive communication" for a tweet he posted in November 2020, parodying the police spokesperson, Fred Enanga. Muhima was jailed and denied access to his family and lawyers for five days before being released on bail.
"By prosecuting Michael Muhima for tweeting a joke, Ugandan authorities are sending a chilling message about their lack of tolerance for free speech online," said Oryem Nyeko, Uganda researcher at Human Rights Watch. "Instead of using the threat of prosecution to control what people say, public officials should learn to tolerate criticism and scrutiny, whether serious or in jest."
Police initially arrested Muhima on February 5, 2021, at his home in Kampala over the November 3, 2020 tweet of a picture of Enanga, captioned, "We arrested Mr. Kyagulanyi as part of our investigation into Mr. Amuriat's missing shoes." The tweet referred to the arrest that day of the opposition politician Robert Kyagulanyi, popularly known as Bobi Wine, following the release of another detained opposition presidential candidate, Patrick Amuriat of the Forum for Democratic Change, without his shoes.
Muhima told Human Rights Watch that two armed men in civilian clothes claiming to be contractors with the national water company confiscated his phone, dragged and bundled him into a car, and drove him to the Crime Intelligence Directorate office, where he was questioned about the tweet. Later that day he was transferred to the Special Investigations Unit in Kireka, Kampala, where he was detained for five days without access to family or lawyers. He was released on police bond six days after his arrest.
