The High Court in Kampala has dismissed with costs a suit by Innocent Hilary Taylor Seguya, a Harvard University student who accused President Yoweri Museveni of illegally blocking him on his official twitter handle @KagutaMuseveni that is followed by at least 1.6million users.
In a judgment delivered on May 20, High Court judge Andrew Bashaija ruled that Mr Museveni’s twitter account is personal and hence has latitude to choose on whom to allow or block on the popular social networking site.
“The net finding is that no right of the applicant, whatsoever, was infringed or, violated by the said officials. The application is dismissed in its entirety, with costs to the respondent,” Bashaija ruled.
Seguya, through his Attorney Hassan Male Mabirizi had sued the Attorney General Mr William Byaruhanga, the principal legal adviser to the government accusing Mr Museveni, government spokesman Ofwono Opondo, and senior police officer AIGP Asan Kasingye of ‘illegally’ blocking him from their respective twitter handles which he claimed they used to disseminate public information.
“Being private twitter handles, therefore, the respective persons have the latitude to choose whom to allow or block on those handles” the judge ruled.
“Equally, there is nothing illegal or which precludes a public official from using his/her private twitter handle to communicate or comment on a private matter or an issue of public concern. That would not in itself transform a private twitter handle to public,” Justice Bashaija stated in his ruling.
Justice Bashaija named @stateHouseUg; @ugandamediacent; and @policeUg as the official twitter handles for State House, the government of Uganda and Uganda Police Force and these are exclusively used to communicate official positions.
The judge clarified that there was no evidence that any of Seguya's rights were violated by being blocked on Twitter by President Museveni and the two government officials. The application was, therefore, dismissed and Hillary ordered to pay costs.
Related case
Seguya's case came at a time of a similar case in which a court ruled that U.S. President Donald Trump violated the U.S. Constitution by blocking people whose views he disliked on Twitter.
Citing the US scenario, Justice Bashaija ruled that the US precedent in which President Donald Trump was ordered to unblock his twitter followers that Sseguya based on during his case is not applicable in Uganda because the law regimes are quite different in the two countries.
"Records Administration advised the White House that the Presidential tweets are official records for preservation under the said Act. Several other case law authorities are quoted and principles therein relied upon. Such legislation and case law principles espoused, do not obtain in our jurisdiction, which is founded on common law jurisdiction, unlike the USA,” Justice Bashaija ruled.
The application was, therefore, dismissed and Hillary ordered to pay costs.
