A Ugandan student living in the United States, Seguya Taylor, has sued President Yoweri Museveni for blocking him on Twitter after he described him as ‘a dictator’ and said he had to go.

According to The Guardian of UK, Male Mabirizi Kiwanuka who filed the petition on his behalf said Seguya could have been blocked by the president, or his aides, after a critical post he made in April, in which he told the Ghanaian president, Nana Akufo-Addo, that he would rather have him as president than Museveni.

He had said:

“I wish we could exchange you for our Ugandan president dictator, General Yoweri Kaguta Museveni, who has been for 33 years,” said Seguya after Akufo-Addo made a presentation on Pan-Africanism to a group of students at Harvard University.

“We are telling him enough is enough. He has to go.”

In the lawsuit, Seguya, a global youth ambassador and master’s student of international relations at Harvard University, contends that by blocking him on Twitter, Museveni bars him from online conversation. It leaves him unable to see or respond to tweets on the president’s official handle, @KagutaMuseveni, used as a public forum to disseminate information relating to the activities of his public office in his official capacity and to get feedback from citizens.

He has petitioned the civil division of the high court in the capital, Kampala, to declare Museveni’s action as illegal, procedurally improper, unreasonable and irrational.

His Twitter account, @HillaryTaylorVI, is blocked from following, viewing, contacting, liking, tagging and retweeting the tweets on the president’s account.

On 30 July 2019, he said Museveni or his aides blocked his account, without notice or affording the applicant a hearing – infringing his right against discrimination as guaranteed in the constitution, his freedom of speech and expression, and his right to participate in the affairs of government and peaceful activities to influence the policies of government.

Government spokesperson Ofwono Opondo and the director of political commissariat at Uganda’s police force, Asan Kasingye, who blocked Seguya on 8 August and 20 July respectively, are also named in the lawsuit.

In his legal complaint, filed on Monday, Seguya said:

“The[ir] actions did not protect my freedom against political persecution and [restricted my] rights, which are acceptable and demonstrably justifiable in a free and democratic society.”

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