Hours after protests from university students marred Yoweri Museveni’s speech in Kenya at Kenyatta University yesterday, the Ugandan President was in the spotlight at Havard University when a graduate student expressed his desire to have President Nana Akufo-Addo govern his nation instead of one of Africa’s longest-serving leaders.
The student, Hilary Innocent Taylor, during a Q&A session after President Akufo-Addo address at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government, begun his question with criticism of Yoweri Museveni.
Taylor who is pursuing masters in International Relations said to President Akufo-Addo: “I wish we could exchange you for our Ugandan president.”
He proceeded to describe Yoweri Museveni, who has been in power since 1986, as a dictator, as the room erupted in cheers and applause. “We are telling him enough is enough,” he said.
President Akufo-Addo himself was left in a mix of laughter and bewilderment as the student made his remarks.
In Kenya, Museveni’s entry to the lecture hall at Kenyatta University was greeted by chants of “Bobby Wine” and “Stella Nyanzi” before the police intervened.
These are the more recent symbols of resistance towards what some have described as Museveni’s despotic rule.
Stella Nyanzi has been in prison since November 7 2018, on two charges; cyber harassment and offensive communication.
Among other things considered offensive and falling foul of the country’s Computer Misuse Act, Nyanzi described Yoweri Museveni as a “pair of buttocks” and is accused of implying that Museveni’s mother’s womb was “cursed” and should have “burnt up on the unborn foetus [ of Museveni].”
President Yoweri Museveni
She was also accused of disturbing the peace of the President and The First Lady of Uganda, Janet Kataaha Museveni.
Pop star turned opposition MP Bobi Wine also suffered arrest in August 2018 where was allegedly tortured and beaten.
He left Uganda to the US treatment for injuries he said he received during his detention.
Bobi Wine, real name Robert Kyagulanyi, was among a number of opposition politicians who were charged with treason after the president’s convoy was allegedly pelted with stones after a campaign rally.
Source: citinewsroom.com