A-Level student misses final exam after getting jailed for six months for mocking Ugandan President on TikTok

A 20 year old Ugandan student, Edison Ssemugenyi, has been sentenced to six months in prison for mocking President Yoweri Museveni and his son, the Chief of Defence Forces, General Muhoozi Kainerugaba, on TikTok, a development that caused him to miss his crucial final school examinations. Ssemugenyi was convicted on Tuesday, December 9, 2025, after pleading guilty at the Nakawa Chief Magistrates Court to publishing what prosecutors described as malicious information about the president and his son. The court heard that the Senior Six student used his TikTok account, @iam_edson, between August and November 2025 to spread what the state called false and harmful information, including claims that President Museveni was ill and bedridden, as well as abusive statements directed at Gen. Muhoozi. While delivering judgment, Chief Magistrate Esther Nyadoi said although the students youth and guilty plea were taken into consideration, the offences were serious and required punishment. He has not wasted courts time by pleading guilty; he is also a young man who was in senior six and doing his final exams when he was arrested in this matter, and I believe he can change, she said. She added, For that to happen, he needs to be punished, though not with a deterrent punishment as prayed for by the State because of what I have explained above. The magistrate noted that the law provided the option of a fine but ruled it unsuitable in the circumstances, stressing that public officers deserved respect. I also note that the sentence as provided for in the law provides an option for a fine. However, given the circumstances of the offense, I find that option does not abide, given the person is a fountain of the defence forces by virtue of their positions. They deserve to be respected rather than spreading malicious information, she ruled. The court was told that Ssemugenyi was arrested in November 2025 while preparing for his Uganda Advanced Certificate of Education final examinations and had only managed to write two papers before his arrest. He was sentenced to six months imprisonment at Luzira Prison on the two counts to which he pleaded guilty, with the sentences to run concurrently. He is expected to face a separate trial for a third count of hate speech, linked to an allegation that he referred to the president as a thief in an online post, with that case scheduled to begin on January 6, 2026. The conviction comes amid a broader regional trend of prosecutions over online commentary. In a related case, a United States based Zambian influencer, Ethel Chisono Edwards, was recently sentenced to 18 months in prison for insulting President Hakainde Hichilema online after she was arrested on arrival in Zambia for her grandmothers funeral and pleaded guilty. Edwards was convicted under Zambias new Cyber Security Act, a law that has drawn criticism for restricting free expression and was described as intrusive by the United States embassy in April 2025.The post A-Level student misses final exam after getting jailed for six months for mocking Ugandan President on TikTok appeared first on Linda Ikeji Blog.