PROFILE: Who is Dr Stella Nyanzi?

By Mubiru Ivan

Dr. Stella Nyanzi is among the 45 senior academic staff that were fired by Makerere University last weekend.

The University Vice Chancellor Prof Barnabas Nawangwe revealed that majority of the fired academicians were staff who had absconded from duty for over five years, while others were involved in sexual harassment cases.

Nyanzi is currently on remand in Luzira Prison on charges of charges of cyber harassment and offensive communication against President Yoweri Museveni.

Who is Stella Nyanzi?

Nyanzi was born on 16 June, 1974 in Masaka District. She is a human rights activist and an academician.

She studied at Makerere University from 1993 to 1996 where she graduated with Bachelor degree of Arts in Mass Communication and Literature.

While at Makerere University,  Nyanzi studied with renowned Journalist Andrew Mwenda and the two have time and again claimed to have been better than the other in class.

From 1999-2000, Nyanzi attended University College London a constituent college of the Federal University of London where she got her Masters in Science, Medical Anthropology.

2003 – 2008, The Academic Don studied PhD in Social anthropologist, Sexualities, Youth and Health Policy from London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. She went in 2005 to Gambia where she carried out her academic research about sexualities of youths.

Nyanzi has worked in various offices of various organizations with most of them being related to Social Research. Shortly after her graduation, in 1997, she got a job of a Social Science Research Associate at the Medical Research Council (UK) Programme in Uganda where she worked from February 1997 to September 2002.

She later got a job as Local Anthropologist at the Medical Research Council Laboratories, The Gambia, where she worked from 2002 to 2003 and left after one year and one month.

Upon getting her PHD in London, in 2009,  Nyanzi got a job at the Makerere University as a Researcher at the Law, Gender & Sexuality Research Project, Faculty of Law, Makerere University where she worked until December 2013.

She later got a job at the Makerere Institute of Social Research as a Research Fellow at the same institution. In 2016, Nyanzi was requested to lecture in the newly Introduced PhD programme dubbed the Mamdani PHD Project, she declined the request, leading to the closure of her office and her subsequent nude protest against her boss. She was later suspended by the university over misconduct.

On April 7, 2017, Nyanzi was arrested and detained by Police at Kiira Police Station after her keynote address at the Rotary Club talk show. She was thereafter produced to court on Monday April 10, 2017 where she was charged with various charges including misuse of a computer, and cyber harassment, abusing the first lady and the President, calling him a pair of buttocks and was later remanded to Luzira Prison.

On April 11 an attempt was made by the doctors from Butabika to carry out a psychiatric assessment examination to determine whether she was insane as the government prosecutor was alleging. However, she resisted the examination and requested that her personal doctor and at least one family member should be present if they want to carry out a medical test on her.

Nyanzi was released on 10 May 2017 on a noncash 10 million Ugandan shillings (US$2924) bail.

In November, 2018, she was again arrested for abusing the person of the president and his mother.

Prosecution alleges that on September 19, 2018 Nyanzi willfully and repeatedly used electronic communication to post messages offensive in nature via Facebook transmitted over the internet to disturb or attempted to disturb the peace, quiet or right of privacy of President Yoweri Museveni with no purpose of legitimate communication.

She is currently in Luzira prison until next year in January when she will be appearing in Courts of law.

Additional information from Wikipedia