By Thursday evening President Museveni was said to have penned his signature to over 3 bills inclusive of the controversial Computer misuse act amendment of Hon. Nsereko. Other bills included physical Planners’ Registration Act, 2022, Mining and Minerals Act, 2022 and the Kampala Capital City (Amendment) Act, 2022.
A Sneak peak of the Computer Mis use act:
In July 2022, there was a public uproar about the proposed amendment of the computer misuse act, a 2022 bill. Previously this bill was enacted in 2011 to enhance safety and security in the increasingly digitised environment, including through the prevention of unlawful access, abuse or misuse of information systems including computers and securing the conduct of electronic transactions. Most political analyst however annulled to the fact that it was targeting major opposition politicians who prefer tabling their opposition on social media. Fast rewinding back to 2019 where Dr. Stella Nyanzi was arrested for insulting the president on a social media post, convicted of cyber harassment & acquitted of offensive communications.
Kampala Central MP, Hon. Nsereko did not face it easy with law with “rebel lawyer” a renowned law pundit Counsel Semakadde on the same during one of the televised talk shows resulting to referring to one as a political “dimwit”. The show later on continued on social media! But that alone did not stop Hon. Nsereko table the bill on the flow of the 11th Parliament. Other retrogressive provisions in the Computer Misuse (Amendment) Bill 2022 are prohibition of sending or sharing of unsolicited information through a computer, and prohibition of sending, sharing, or transmitting of malicious information about or relating to any person. The Campusa has learnt that with the new law, one could face criminal charges after forwarding a WhatsApp voice note, sharing photos without the consent of the owner among others.
According to the new law, a convicted personal who recorded another person’s voice or video without permission, or unauthorised access to their personal information could rot in the cop’s shell for a period not exceeding 10 years or pay up to 15 million Uganda shillings.
It is on that basis that we throw our poll question, do you think this new law is enforceable?
Is it considerate?
