Dictator Museveni boards his $50 million jet purchased with stolen foreign aid money.
April 18 marks Dr. Stella Nyanzi’s 12th day in a Ugandan maximum security prison because the university lecturer and social media critic dared to refer to the country’s dictator of 31 years Gen. Yoweri Museveni as “a pair of buttocks” in a Facebook posting.
While in custody the government reportedly sent two doctors to examine Dr. Nyanzi and a government prosecutor has questioned her sanity in a court proceeding.
Her friends and family members are understandably worried. Many vocal critics of Gen. Museveni have ended up dead.
Why did Dr. Nyanzi refer to Gen. Museveni as a “pair of buttocks”?
Dr. Nyanzi believes Gen. Museveni’s promises are as worthless as the hot air emanating from posteriors. One of the many promises Museveni reneged on was to provide free sanitary pads to disadvantaged schoolgirls around the country so they wouldn’t miss classes during their monthly cycles. He made the promise during his campaign for last year’s presidential election; even though Ugandan and international observers concluded that the vote wasn’t free, fair or credible, Gen. Museveni was declared the victor by his hand-picked chair of the election commission.
When Janet Museveni the dictator’s wife who doubles as the country’s education minister told Parliament in February the government couldn’t afford to provide the sanitary pads Dr. Nyanzi escalated her social media attacks on both Musevenis. It was because of corruption that the regime wouldn’t supply the sanitary pads, she contended.
Indeed the dictatorship receives $750 million in aid from U.S. taxpayers each year. This publication encourages Americans to sign a change.org campaign demanding that the U.S. suspend aid to the regime until Dr. Nyanzi is unconditionally released and there is a review of how U.S. aid to Uganda is spent.
https://www.change.org/p/president-donald-trump-u-s-suspend-aid-to-uganda-until-dr-stella-nyanzi-freed
The U.S. has already warned the Museveni regime on the need to respect freedom of expression; but talk is cheap so long as the dictator continues to receive millions in foreign aid.
http://www.blackstarnews.com/global-politics/africa/us-warns-uganda-on-freedom-of-expression-after-academic
Ironically, while claiming the regime can’t afford sanitary pads for students Gen. Museveni purchased a $50 million Gulfstream jet with foreign aid money.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2002319/UK-aid-cash-helped-African-dictator-buy-30m-jet.html
This begs the question: who’s sanity should be questioned. A general who spends $50 million in foreign aid on a private jet or a university lecturer who demands that his regime deliver the free sanitary pads promised to students?
Meanwhile Dr. Nyanzi had taken matters into her hands; doing the work the regime had refused to perform. She launched fundraising campaigns with local artists and started distributing sanitary pads herself around the country. She’s also launched a Gofundme campaign to raise money for more sanitary pads.
https://www.gofundme.com/padsforuganda
This was citizen-government in action.
As her campaign was gaining support allover Uganda and media coverage, Dr. Nyanzi was interrogated by detectives of the Ugandan police, suspended from her teaching job at Makerere University and barred from leaving Uganda. She was finally arrested and charged with “cyber harassment” and “misuse” of computer.
In order to intimidate reporters who may be sympathetic to the free sanitary pads campaign, Reporters Without Borders issued a press release about a Ugandan journalist who was kidnapped at gunpoint and taken to a remote location where she was beaten allegedly because she had written favorably about Dr. Nyanzi’s crusade.
The reporter’s head was shaved and she was released with a warning not to harass Janet Museveni — she was also forced to delete postings deemed critical from her Facebook page.
Dr. Nyanzi has been denied bail and so her relatives now have to take care of her three young children.
Supporters have launched a campaign to help meet her legal defense and upkeep for her family. We encourage readers to support this campaign so Dr. Nyanzi can stand up to a brutal dictatorship.
https://gogetfunding.com/help-freestellanyanzi/
If as Gen. Museveni claims, Dr. Nyanzi is crazy, then Uganda surely needs more crazy people like her.
