Editorial Team/Staff Writer
An award-winning human rights defender who made a video insulting army chief Gen Muhoozi Kainerugaba was remanded in Luzira prison—but the charge brought against her does not appear to be connected to the video.
Praise Aloikin Opoloje, 27, appeared before senior principal Grade One magistrate Winnie Nankya Jatiko on Monday to face a charge of illegally using another person’s SIM card. She was remanded until October 14, 2026.
It is unclear why the prosecution brought the charge. The charge sheet does not link the alleged SIM-card offence to Ms Opoloje’s video.
Previously, Ugandans posting videos insulting public figures online were charged under the Computer Misuse Act. In March 2026, the Constitutional Court declared the Computer Misuse (Amendment) Act, 2022 null and void after finding that Parliament had passed it without complying with quorum requirements. The court also declared several provisions of the Computer Misuse Act unconstitutional, saying they violated fundamental rights, including freedom of expression and access to information, guaranteed under the Constitution.
In her video, Ms Opoloje, who won the EU Human Rights Defenders’ Award 2025, said: “When you count the number of people that fear Muhoozi, do me justice and take me off that list. Do me justice and take me off that list because you’re not going to convince me to fear our cabbage. Every little thing that Muhoozi has is based off the sweat, tears and pain of Ugandans.”
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She went on: “He’s a pure political nepo baby […] He knows how weak and powerless he is, and that’s why he hides behind abducting people. He hides behind torturing people. He hides behind humiliating people because he’s a fearful brat. He’s a cabbage in his head. He can’t even think for himself. He has to borrow Andrew Mwenda [political analyst] to think for him.”
Gen Kainerugaba had not responded to the video by publication time, and there was no indication that he had responded by the time Ms Opoloje was remanded. Ugandans who have previously criticised him using strong language, like the writer and lawyer Kakwenza Rukirabashaija, have been arrested by security forces and later tortured.
Jimmy Spire Ssentongo, an academic and a human rights defender, said that while “two wrongs don’t make a right”—a reference to Ms Opoloje’s insulting video and Gen Kainerugaba’s own use of insults on social media—the army chief “should be the last to take offence about being insulted”.
He added: “The same supporters who find no fault with his [Gen Kainerugaba’s] insults are now all over the place condemning Aloikin for insulting!!!”
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