A 6th year Makerere University student after he plead guilty to offensive communication charges for comments he made about President Yoweri Museveni and Parliament’s Speaker Anita Among.
Elson Tumwine, who had gone missing while interning at Hoima, a city in Uganda reappeared in Entebbe Magistrate Court and was arraigned before Grade One Magistrate Tibayeta Edgar Tusiime.
Last week Friday, he admitted to having shared a video in May this year where he made comments that Uganda’s Computer Misuse Act deemed to have been offensive.
According to the prosecution, Tumwine had posted a video where he alleged that President Museveni was apologizing to the Baganda community and sidelining other areas in the country where he alleged the president burned thousands of people in the country’s Teso region and killed and dumped people in a swamp with the aid of Rwandese soldiers.
“Tumwine had posted a video where he said: “According to Anita Among and President Museveni, he apologized to the Baganda, behaving as if that is the only part of the country he offended. Museveni burned a train full of human beings in Mukura, Teso region; a thousand people were killed and dumped in a swamp opposite Soroti University by Rwandan soldiers who came to help him”, stated Ahebwa Byaruhanga Paul, who was leading the prosecution.
The prosecution further argued that through the video, Tumwine intended to ridicule, demean or incite hostility against both the president and the speaker of parliament.
While delivering the sentence, Magistrate Tibayeta noted that Tumwine didn’t waste the court’s time and pleaded for forgiveness which were some of the factors that were considered before the handing of the two-month prison sentence.
Tumwine is now the sixth TikTok user in Uganda to appear before court and be sentenced over similar charges that consisted of offensive communication against President Museveni, his family or senior officials in government
