Kakwenza RUKIRABASHAIJA

Authorities continued to prosecute exiled novelist, Kakwenza Rukirabashaija for ‘offensive communications’ under Section 25 of the Computer Misuse Act although the section was declared null and void by the Constitutional Court of Uganda in January 2023.

Security forces have arbitrarily arrested and detained Rukirabashaija three times for his writing, beginning in 2020. On the third occasion, he was violently arrested in December 2021 by security forces and detained incommunicado for close to three weeks, during which he was subjected to torture, over remarks he had posted on Twitter about President Yoweri Museveni and his son who was at the time the commander of Uganda’s Land Forces. On 11 January 2022, Rukirabashaija was secretly arraigned before a Kampala Magistrates Court and denied access to a lawyer. Charged for offensive communications and committed to remand custody, he was released two days later on stringent bail terms, including a requirement to deposit his passport with the authorities. Fearing for his life, without a chance for a fair trial and in urgent need of specialised medical attention for injuries inflicted by torture, he fled into exile in late January 2023.

Rukirabashaija was named the 2021 Writer of Courage by Zimbabwean author Tsitsi Dangarembga. The award is part of the PEN Pinter prize awarded each year by English Pen.

Kakwenza Rukirabashaija, born in 1988, is the author of The Greedy Barbarian (Kisana Consults, 2020 and Theworldiswatching in 2023) - a satirical novel covering themes of corruption and patronage; Banana Republic: Where Writing is Treasonous (Kisana Consults, 2020) which recounts Rukirabashaija’s detention experience, including torture, during his arrest and detention in April 2020; and The Savage Avenger (Theworldiswatching, 2023).