A 21-year-old man has become the latest Ugandan TikToker to be jailed after making a video said to insult President Yoweri Museveni.
Emmanuel Nabogodi appeared for sentencing on Monday after pleading guilty last week to four charges including hate speech and spreading malicious information about the president.
He was sentenced to 32 months in prison.
Nabogodi, who is known for sharing humorous content to his 20,000 followers, filmed a mock trial of the head of state. In it he called for Museveni to be publicly flogged.
Rights groups have often complained about restrictions on freedom of expression in the country, alleging that the president – in power since 1986 – does not tolerate criticism.
In July, Edward Oyebowa was sentenced to six years in prison on similar charges to Nabogodi in relation to a TikTok post. Three others are awaiting trial over content on the social media app.
In sentencing Nabogodi, Entebbe court chief magistrate Stella Maris Amabiles said he was not remorseful and that the sentence would help curb social media attacks against people, including the president himself.
“This court hopes that by the time the offender gets out of prison, he will have learned that abusing people in the name of getting material is bad,” he said.
He added that he has the right to appeal against the sentence within 14 days.
He was convicted in 2022 under a controversial amendment to the Computer Misuse Act.
It made it illegal to “write, transmit, or share any information by computer that is likely to ridicule, humiliate, or insult another person, group of persons, tribe, race, religion, or sex.” is
In its human rights report on Uganda last year The US State Department said “Authorities used the law to intimidate Internet users from criticizing government policies”.
Rights groups also regularly denounce the Ugandan authorities for human rights abuses and freedom of expression.
In 2022, award-winning Ugandan author Kakwenza Rukirabashaija was charged with two counts of “offensive communication”. After making disparaging comments about the president and his son on Twitter.
After spending a month in prison, he fled the country to Germany, where he said he was tortured.
