Controversial academic Stella Nyanzi’s use of coarse language on social media while commenting on socio-political and economic issues got under the skin of First Lady Janet Museveni.

It also got the country talking about a wide range of issues from the way children are transported to school, what they eat at school to sanitary towels to keep girls in school.

Dr Nyanzi’s Facebook post got over 3,000 likes and 1,600 shares, a few hours after it went up. On Twitter, the hashtags #stellanyanzi and #drstellanyanzi were trending on Thursday and Friday.

The acerbic post questioned leaders’ privileges and their connection with the daily travails of ordinary people, directly casting Mrs Museveni as out of touch with the reality of the people she and her husband lead.

It provoked an immediate response from Mrs Museveni, who is also Minister for Education, who granted a full length interview to NTV’s Sheila Nduhukire. Such an immediate response is uncommon as Mrs Museveni has hardly granted any interviews, especially to independent media.

“How can I be out of touch?” Mrs Museveni asked in her response. “I was Member of Parliament for Ruhama, I was minister for Karamoja and walked with the Karimojong in the manyattas trying to address these challenges.”

But rather than calm the storm, clips of Mrs Museveni’s interview fired up the online debate as they were quickly shared, especially on WhatsApp and Twitter. She also took to Twitter to fight back, posting on her handle @JanetMuseveni that “I have received reports about Dr Stella Nyanzi insulting me. I want to tell Ugandans that I forgive her.”

While campaigning for re-election last year, President Yoweri Museveni promised to provide sanitary towels to keep teenage girls at school the whole month, but these have not been included in this year’s budget.

The question of a midday meal for children, especially those under the Universal Primary Education, has been a subject of discussion for years but the government is yet to allocate money for it.

Dr Nyanzi’s post was provoked by a press conference by the First Lady at State House days earlier in which she advised parents either to walk their children to and from school or ensure they are driven in cars. She also warned parents against transporting more than two children on a boda boda.
On the promised sanitary pads for girls, Mrs Museveni said there was no money allocated her ministry to fulfil the campaign promise, noting that nearly all ministries would suffer a 10 per cent budget cut to fund critical infrastructure projects especially in the oil rich Albert region, to facilitate quick production of oil.
Uganda, which has discovered about 6.5 billion barrels of oil along the Albertine Graben, is preparing for oil production by 2020. The government plans to build a pipeline from Hoima in western Uganda to the Tanzanian port of Tanga. It also plans to build a 60,000-barrels per day refinery in Kabale, Hoima to process some of the oil for domestic use and regional markets.
“I honestly forgave that lady,” Ms Museveni said, “I did not know that I could deserve what she said about me today.”
A section of the public sympathised with the First Lady, especially on the language used but agreed that Dr Nyanzi had raised legitimate questions.

Not ready to back down, Dr Nyanzi immediately hit back at the interview, using Facebook to reject the “forgiveness.” She instead asked Ms Museveni to drop some of her privileges if she really cared about Ugandans.

“I bring a voice to the voiceless, especially women. I speak my mind based on my banal experiences of life,” Dr Nyanzi said in a post that had 6,243 likes on Facebook by 11am Friday March 31.

Makerere University academic Deus Muhwezi Kamunyu defended Dr Nyanzi’s use of coarse language, describing it as an academic field that sprang up in the 1990s at the height of feminism and stood against institutionalised injustices against women and other minority groups.

“Some of us in academia would not find Stella’s approach to discourse surprising and outside the limits of thought,” said Dr Muhwezi, adding, “What is more immoral? The act of stealing public resources, hence sending millions they are meant to save to their graves, or telling someone (especially a leader) to go and eat their mothers….?”

It is not the first time Dr Nyanzi is causing controversy. Last year, after she was locked out of her office, she stripped to her undergarments to protest against Professor Mohamood Mamdani, head of the Makerere Institute for Social Research who had ordered her office padlocked. She got her office opened after Vice Chancellor Ddumba Sentamu intervened. She was briefly sent on suspension. Just last week, Dr Nyanzi was stopped from flying to the Netherlands to attend a conference over unclear reasons.

The social media battle has left regulators in a fix, who have already attracted a heavy backlash when all social media was blocked on election day on February 12, 2016.

The Uganda Communications Commission was also named in an Ireland case against Facebook by Kampala lawyer Fred Muwema, who wanted the social media giant to reveal the identity of one of its users, Tom Voltaire Okwalinga, over posts he had made.

The UCC executive director Godfrey Mutabazi was named in court documents for trying to gag free speech by investigating Facebook users.

A letter from the director of human resources of Makerere University dated March 6 emerged on Friday March 31, warning Dr Nyanzi against using social media to abuse fellow staff members and other leaders.

“This is, therefore, to warn and inform you that the appointments board will not give you any further warning should the habit of using social media or any other means to abuse people continue.”