Writer: Godwin Toko. Photo/Courtesy
There is a joke told by the Ugandan stand-up comedian Pablo Kimuli. Pablo, so goes the joke, met an American in Uganda at the time Obama was the US president.
The American, shocked by the fact that Ugandans were barred by law from freely expressing their disagreement with the president, bragged that he could go to the White House in Washington and scream, "I hate Obama!” and nothing would happen to him.
Patriotically, Pablo retorts: "I too can go to the State House in Entebbe and scream, ‘I hate Obama!' and nothing would happen to me!".
It is said comedians and cartoonists get away with saying a lot of things the rest of us would be in trouble for saying. That is certainly true for Pablo and this joke. Here is a man who not only jokes about the country, but the President – protected by colonial laws from being annoyed by us, the ordinary people – and not only does he get away with it, but he also leaves audiences laughing when he does and receives bank alerts of their payment.
Unlike Pablo the comedian, and perhaps to bring that joke to reality, Emmanuel Nabugodi, a little-known TikTok content creator, cannot tell jokes about the President. The 21-year-old, who recorded a skit of himself as a judge in "dog nation" – complete with a white sponge on his head to mimic the wigs our judges wear – was sent to jail for 32 months. His crime? Well, the skit involved a mock trial of an unnamed president, still in dog nation, the president, like our president has ruled forever and for that, was sentenced to corporal punishment for doing so.
Despite Nabugodi’s plea of guilt, the magistrate said he was unremorseful, and his sentence would serve as a deterrence to others. Ordinary, a plea of guilt means one is remorseful, and sentencing magistrate – Stella Maris Amabilisi ought to have known such sentences do not always deter others.
In July, she sentenced another TikToker – 24-year-old Edward Awebwa – to six years for insulting the President. Just this week, she has been so busy with TikTokers that by the time of this writing – she had locked up five of them for “annoying” the President and members of the First Family.
In the information age that we are privileged to live in, it is important that societies allow for the free flow of information from all quarters. In the years past, public offices had suggestion boxes in the open to take feedback from their service users – as this helped them improve their services.
While some of these boxes still exist in public offices, social media has particular proved a better way for people to give feedback. Fully taking advantage of the Internet, the President creates time off his busy schedule to update the country through social media – mostly X (formerly Twitter) – of the things he is up to.
He is not alone, the Speaker of Parliament, ministers, senior army officers, multinational businesses in Uganda, and foreign missions, all take advantage of social media to communicate – and receive information.
In the past, the President would even engage some of the people who responded to his tweets. This surely is a better way to take full advantage of the Internet – instead of having youthful Ugandans in their prime years, who would otherwise contribute to our economy, locked up in our already-full-beyond-capacity jails. In fact, locking up people like Nabugodi is counterproductive.
First, while there is almost zero chance the President would ever watch the videos in question to get annoyed by them, their imprisonment normally serves the effect of making the videos viral. So, we end up with a situation where they become the subject of discussions on BBC, Al Jazeera and other international media channels – a discussion that also says our President and his family are so thin-skinned.
In the end, many will not speak up, despite the Constitution recognising their right to, and the fact that the democracy we are trying to attain as a country can only thrive with the free flow of information.
