On Jan. 10 Uganda's Constitutional Court ruled unconstitutional a section of an internet law that journalists and critics of President Yoweri Museveni say was used for over a decade to persecute them.
"It's a milestone," says Eron Kiiza, a human rights lawyer who has represented Ugandan journalists who have accused the government of persecution."Section 25 was notorious [as it was] the formality the government was using to silence critics." Rukirabashaija was charged and arrested in December 2021 after tweeting critical comments about Museveni. In 2020, he was twice arrested and charged with other cybercrime offenses, first related to his fiction novel"The Greedy Barbarian," which is widely perceived to be a satire about Museveni, and then to his second book,"Banana Republic: Where Writing is Treasonous," in which he chronicled the first arrest.
In March 2021, the group was arrested again for the same video skit and released shortly after, Serwanja says.While praising the Constitutional Court's ruling, lawyers and activists who advocate against the Computer Misuse Act stress that other problematic sections remain. Those found in breach of such provisions could face fines of up to 15 million Ugandan shillings and an up to seven-year jail sentence.