There has been a lot of chaos this afternoon at the Buganda Road Chief Magistrate’s court as former Makerere University Researcher Dr Stella Nyanzi was sentenced to 9 months in jail.
She has been handed the sentence due to an offence of cyber harassment in which she insulted the person of President Museveni and his late mother Esteri Kokundeka.
Nyanzi was convicted yesterday by Buganda Road Court grade one magistrate Gladys Kamasanyu who ruled that the suggestions she made in her Facebook page were immoral according to the standards of an African community.
However, Nyanzi has been sentenced in absentia after she was whisked away from the Tele-conferencing screen at Luzira prison when she flashed her breasts on the screen and kept on insulting the magistrate while showing her middle finger.
Before she was whisked away, Nyanzi was so bitter saying that she was not notified that she would not physically appear in court for her sentencing.
However even though her supporters kept on insulting the magistrate, this did not deter her from handing an 18 months jail term to Nyanzi deducting the 8 months she has spent in jail.
“I cannot be tempted to give Nyanzi a fine as it would occasion no impact on such an unremorseful convict, who posted a vulgar poem attacking the person of the president,” the magistrate ruled while passing her sentence.
However, before taking leave of the matter, Nyanzi’s supporters turned rowdy and threw a mineral water body to the magistrate prompting police to swing in action and arrest a number of them.
While convicting her the magistrate yesterday ruled that no sensible person would make sense out of such an uncouth message, openly discuss it or no parent can discuss it with his/her child as Dr Nyanzi’s post corrupts the minds of a young generation given the fact that access to Facebook has no age –limit.
Ms Kamasanyu noted that it would only be an immoral person like Nyanzi to openly insult the privacy of a dead woman.
The contentious post which was also displayed on a large screen during trial was posted by Dr Stella Nyanzi on September 16, 2018, on her official facebook page; a day after President Museveni celebrated his birthday.
The magistrate however acquitted Nyanzi on the second offence of offensive communication on grounds that even though she willingly posted the message, there is no evidence to prove that she repeatedly posted the message to prove the ingredients of this offence.
