Ibrahim Musana, commonly known by his TikTok name Pressure 24/7 was on March 7, sent back to jail, after the state asked for time to review his sureties.
Musana who prior to his arrest had been a mental health patient at Butabika Mental Hospital will now spend eight more days in jail, as he awaits a decision on whether the state and the magistrate think his sureties are substantial enough to warrant his release.
Just as was the case with his arrest on February 17, and his subsequent remand six days later, Musana has garnered little to no sympathy among most Ugandans who feel he went too far, when he demeaned, threatened violence and promoted hostility against several cultural and political leaders in Uganda.
Those that Musana aka Pressure 24/7 demeaned include Kabaka Ronald Muwenda Mutebi, President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni, Speaker of Parliament Annet Anita Among, and State Minister for Information Communication Technology Joyce Nabbosa Ssebugwawo.
Previously, when Kakwenza Rukirabasha and Stella Nyanzi, both now in exile, demeaned politicians and particularly President Museveni and his family, Ugandans rightly condemned the use of the law and order sector to arrest, torture, jail and silence citizens expressing themselves.
Nyanzi, a former Kampala Woman MP Candidate and Makerere University academic was imprisoned for cyber harassment and offensive communication charges and was only released after she had spent sixteen months in jail.
Over those sixteen months, Nyanzi barred her breasts during a court session and continuously used vulgarity in her communication.
Despite the controversial nature of her language, she received widespread support from human rights activists, political leaders and the public. While many did not approve of her diction and methods, they recognised her right to challenge these institutions and detested the persecution and indignity she went through.
Musana on the other hand has not received any support; in fact, the consensus among the majority of Ugandans who have spoken on the subject is that he deserves jail because he dared to use abusive language.
Musana’s isolation is down to using abusive and threatening language, on the Kabaka. In addition to his stature as the ultimate representative for the people of Buganda, his subjects view him as being beyond reproach. The Kabaka and Buganda Kingdom, which he leads, have also suffered the same dispossession, exile and silencing that many Ugandans have lived with at least since 1966.
For this reason, there is a protectiveness that Ugandans have towards the Kabaka of Buganda that Musana offended when he lumped him with political leaders such as President Museveni, the speaker Anita Among and Minister Ssebugwawo.
However, it is likely the state is counting on that protectiveness and reverence that the population would be so enraged by Musana’s abusive language against the Kabaka, as to support an infringement on freedom of expression.
The thing about Uganda under President Museveni is that the government often projects or is used to project the façade of a government that tolerates or even supports a citizenry that enjoys freedom of expression.
That façade created in the early years of President Museveni’s government has never been real.
This is why media houses, particularly radio stations and television frequencies have been handed to mostly members of the National Resistance Movement (NRM).
That fear of democratising access and provision of information explains the government leaning heavily on penal code laws to stunt and intimidate the Daily Monitor in its early years.
Bequeathed to Uganda by colonialists to control information available to the colonized public, laws such as sedition came in handy to harass and jail independent-minded writers and editors of the time, however, the courts at the time seemed to understand the importance of freedom of expression to the democratization process.
In the case of Charles Onyango Obbo and another v AG, which involved journalists like Andrew Mwenda being charged with sedition, the courts, led by Deputy Chief Justice Leticia Mukasa Kikonyogo, delivered a unanimous decision.
The courts held that the sedition crimes embodied in sections 39 and 40 of the Penal Code were inconsistent with Article 29 of the Constitution, which guarantees freedom of expression.
Since the court’s ruling on penal code laws that limit freedom of expression, the government has come up with new tools including the one on the computer misuse act, under which Musana is being charged.
Musana, with public opinion against him, presents an opportunity for the state to establish a precedent of people being punished under this unpopular law for their speech.
That the population would be so blinded by emotion, civil society, the media and everyone who usually stands up to defend freedom of expression would this time pay no attention to Musana’s predicament, allowing the state to establish an important precedent.
Since 2011 when the Computer Misuse Act was first enacted, the state has attempted to convict several critics of the government with no success. Those charged and convicted by the magistrate Gladys Kasanyu only for a higher court to overturn the ruling include Stela Nyanzi who in 2018 served 16 months in jail for using abusive language against Janet Museveni.
Brian Isiko, a student from Jinja was arrested and convicted in 2018 for harassing Sylvia Rwabwogo the Woman Member of Parliament for Kabarole district at the time. Just like Nyanzi, Isiko’s conviction was overturned on appeal.
Kamasanyu also convicted in 2022 Jared Oloo Akumu a Kenyan man who had attempted to follow up a case of theft of his car by constantly emailing Uganda’s Director of Public Prosecution Jane Frances Abodo. This conviction was overturned on appeal too.
Then there are those cases that remain incomplete like that of Kakwenza who left Uganda before the completion of his trial. Habib Buwembo jailed over his protesting Speaker Among’s mockery of torture, as a tool that security forces use on the opposition was also charged under the Computer Misuse Act.
Just like Musana, Buwembo’s jail time was elongated by the state, getting the courts to constantly adjourn to allow for evaluation of sureties.
In recent times, this tactic of requiring an extra hearing to determine whether a bail applicant’s sureties are substantial has been applied to extend detention periods for National Unity Platform (NUP) supporters such as Olivia Lutaaya and her co-accused.
The fact that Musana is starting to get the same treatment as political prisoners in jail for daring to support President Museveni’s strongest opponents in elections should remind us all that freedom of speech is not like any other right.
It is a right that the government has been fighting to take away from us and the state will do many things including riding on the love that people have for the Kabaka to take away a fundamental freedom that is a foundation for all our other freedoms.
Freedom of expression as a foundation of all other rights is one we should safeguard, even at the cost of siding with those like Musana whose causes we abhor.
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