Dr Stella Nyanzi and children have fled to Kenya. Courtesy photo.
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Last Updated on: 4th February 2021, 09:23 pm
She was released from prison on February 20, 2020, after serving over a year in detention on charges of misuse of a computer and cyberbullying.
Kampala—4, February 2021: The former Forum for Democratic Change (FDC) party candidate for Kampala Woman Member of Parliament in the January 14 presidential and parliamentary elections Dr Stella Nyanzi has fled to neighbouring Kenya.
She fled the country on Wednesday, her lawyer, Prof. George Wajackoyah Luchiri says, citing political persecution by President Yoweri Museveni.
Mr Museveni was declared the winner of the 14 January elections with 58.6%, followed by Kyagulanyi Ssentamu Robert of National Unity Platform (NUP) who got 34.8%.
Mr Kyagulanyi, also known as Bobi Wine, has protested the results. This week, his lawyers filed a petition in Supreme Court asking it to annul Museveni’s victory.
Meanwhile, Dr. Nyanzi, who lost to NUP candidate Shamim Malende for Kampala Woman MP has been arrested and detained more than thrice for her activism, in both cases for insulting president Museveni online.
She was released from prison on February 20, 2020, after serving over a year in detention on charges of misuse of a computer and cyberbullying.
A woman human rights defender and academic who campaigns for the rights of Ugandan women, youth, and LGBTI+ people often, she claims Museveni wants to kill her, including her children.
A leading scholar in public health, family planning, sexuality, and the emerging field of African queer studies, in 2017, she was suspended from Makerere University and soon arrested for insulting Museveni.
“The abductions and detentions of political actors were getting closer to me, my children have been targets of police trailing, I just left prison in February last year and I don’t want to go back,” Dr Nyanzi told Daily Monitor in an interview.
