Navigating a restrictive access to information infrastructure in Uganda through the use of social media
Posted: 2 September, 2024 Filed under: Kansiime Mukama Taremwa | Tags: #MeToo, #UgandaParliamentaryExhibition, Access to Information, Access to Information Act, Arab Spring, costs of access to information, dictatorship, digital technologies, human rights law instruments, informed decision-making, internet, political development, political issues, social media, Social media activism, socio-economic development, street protests, traditional media, transparency, Uganda, youthful demonstrators Leave a comment
Author: Kansiime Mukama Taremwa
LLM Candidate, Centre for Human Rights, University of Pretoria
From late February into March 2024, a hashtag ran on X (formerly Twitter) under the designation #UgandaParliamentaryExhibition. According to the protagonists behind this hashtag, the purpose of this move was to cast light on the outrageous spending within Uganda’s parliament.
The internet is considered to be the most disruptive piece of technology that enables the receipt and dissemination of information. Uganda is home to 2.6 million social media users. Few people can doubt the power of the internet in general and social media specifically, in stimulating democratic culture. Even some of the critics of digitisation accept that digital technologies lower the costs of access to information. The use of social media to organise and mobilise persons for action came to the fore in the early 2010s in what was known as the Arab Spring; a series of protests that led to the ousting of dictatorial governments in Tunisia, Egypt, and Libya. It was known for the youthful demonstrators that staged street protests and used social media to coordinate, raise awareness of the political issues, and record the events on the ground. The results of the Arab Spring are that dictatorships that had managed to stifle access to information and free flow of ideas for many years were toppled in part, due to the mobilisational capacities of social media.
Accelerating efforts to combat the rise of sexual and gender-based violence in Kenya
Posted: 17 December, 2020 Filed under: Juliet Nyamao | Tags: #Hear Me Too, #MeToo, #Orange the World, #Times Up, 16 Days of Activism against Gender-Based Violence, 160 girls project, Beijing Declaration and Plan of Action, gender-based violence, Kenyan Constitution, Kenyan Penal Code, Maputo Protocol, sexual and reproductive rights 2 Comments
Author: Juliet Nyamao
Human Rights Attorney, Kenyan Bar
16 Days of Activism against Gender-Based Violence is an international campaign that runs yearly from 25 November, the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, to 10 December, International Human Rights Day. The period is observed in many African countries including Kenya, culminating in a colorful thematic event on the last day of the campaign. During this period, governments may reevaluate their national policies and action plans to completely eradicate practices that discriminately affect women in the community. This campaign provides an opportune moment to create awareness, on a worldwide scale, of the prevalence of sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV) and to galvanise support to curtail its escalation to pandemic proportions.
AfricLaw 