KAMPALA- Hillary Innocent Sseguya a Ugandan citizen pursuing a Master’s degree in International Relations at the Harvard University in the US has on Monday, August 26, petitioned court for allegedly being blocked by the president on twitter.
Seguya in his suit filed before the High Court Civil Division says he gave powers to his relative Hassan Male Mabirizi who is an advocate to institute the case on his behalf.
He dragged President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni, government spokesperson Ofwono Opondo and the police’s Chief Political Commissar, AIGP Asan Kasingye to court for allegedly blocking him from accessing their Twitter accounts.
Seguya contends that all his troubles started in April this year when he asked President Museveni to resign from power during his visit in Angola and thereafter a decision was reached to block from following the three government officials on Twitter.
“As a citizen in the diaspora I am only capable of getting information relating to my country’s governance and to communicate to the respective officials via their twitter handles and therefore blocking me violates my constitutional rights,” Seguya states.
Sseguya states that before being blocked, he used the same Twitter handles to communicate his views, dismays and suggestions to the respective officers thus the decision of the government officials to block him is illegal, improper and irrational since the said Twitter accounts are used in public domain to communicate and receive feedback from citizens.
He has filed twenty-seven tweets in which Museveni tweets and communicates the official government positions about the work done by his office as his evidence.
The Harvard University student now wants the High Court to declare that the actions of blocking him on twitter are unlawful and illegal and that he should be immediately unblocked.
The case comes at a time of a similar case in which a court ruled that US President Donald Trump violated the U.S. Constitution by blocking people whose views he disliked from his Twitter account.
