‘I will not delete my posts’: Inside Uganda’s crackdown on online critics

Kampala, Uganda – Praise Aloikin Opoloje walks into the visitors’ waiting room at Luzira Women’s Prison wearing an oversized yellow-and-black striped dress and a broad smile.Detained since September 26, 2026, she was charged with the alleged unlawful use of a SIM card registered in her mother’s name. Her case has drawn attention to the risks faced by Ugandans who use social media to criticise powerful political and military figures.Opoloje appeared before the Buganda Road Chief Magistrate’s Court on September 28, charged with using another person’s SIM card to carry out illegal activity.She denied the charge under Regulation 29 of Uganda’s 2024 Regulation of Interception of Communications Regulations.Opoloje says her detention followed a video in which she declared that she was not afraid of General Muhoozi Kainerugaba, Uganda’s military chief and son of President Yoweri Museveni.A video, an arrest and an alleged threatOpoloje says she was lured to a Kampala police station by a false accusation that she had stolen a carpet. She alleges that six men then forced her into a Toyota HiAce van, locally known as a “drone”.“We are going to show you what we do to people who insult our presi...