Ugandan academic charged with ‘cyber-harassment’ after calling the president ‘a pair of buttocks’

A prominent female academic and activist was charged on Monday with cyber-harassment for calling President Yoweri Museveni a “pair of buttocks” in a Facebook post.

University lecturer Dr Stella Nyanzi, 42, has raised eyebrows in the conservative country for sexually explicit social media posts in which she has frequently criticised the president and his wife.

She has lashed out at Janet Museveni, who is also education minister, after government reneged on a campaign to supply free sanitary pads to poor schoolgirls and launching vitriolic attacks against the first couple.

Nyanzi appeared in a court in Kampala on Monday, where she was charged with making a remark that was “obscene or indecent”.

The charge sheet referred to a Facebook post on January 28 “where she made a suggestion or proposal referring [to] His Excellency, Yoweri Museveni as among others, ‘a pair of buttocks’.”

The Facebook post reads: “That is what buttocks do. They shake, jiggle, s*** and fart. Museveni is just another pair of buttocks... Ugandans should be shocked that we allowed these buttocks to continue leading our country.”