Ugandan Political blogger Fred Kajjubi Lumbuye, is reportedly under arrest in Turkey. Yet to confirm reports indicate that the social political YouTube blogger at ‘Fred Lumbuye Live’ was in the evening hours on Tuesday August 3 flogged by an unknown security gunmen mostly blacks in Turkey.
Reports indicates that another Ugandan motormouthed blogger, Penge Penge, based in Sweden posted a video being arrested 6 hours prior to lumbuye’s alleged arrest. Social media critics however said that Penge Penge staged his arrest.
It should be remembered that the president of Uganda expressly directed police to hunt down any person suspected of announcing him dead.
The popular vlogger Fred Lumbuye alias Kajjubi who the security forces point at to be part of the team that announced the false president’s death has been among the suspects on wanted.
The Gorvenment of Uganda had deployed security operatives to hunt down Lumbuye Fred over allegations of spreading fake news on top officials.
Reports indicate that Lumbuye Fred’s arrest is to bring him back and subject him the Ugandan Law of spreading fake news on top officials.
Museveni directs on social media misusers
On July 8, President Yoweri Museveni directed security services to track down people who misuse social media by spreading false information.
The President said there was a need to crack down on the people who are misemploying social media, including the Ugandans living abroad. He noted that many of them are now using it to spread baseless and tasteless news with total abandon.
“Another idiotic problem that we need to solve is the social media. Social media apparently has been saying that Museveni is dead. So, the security service needs also to solve that problem. I need to check with them to locate quickly the one who tells such a story because you waste people’s time; they should go for you,” Museveni said
This followed a series of fake news being peddled via social media, including one where bloggers spread falsehoods that Museveni had died.
On July 5, the senior Presidential Press Secretary, Lindah Nabusayi, clarified misinformation that had been spread on social media that there had been a planned presidential address on COVID-19 that evening.
“Please disregard any rumours circulating that President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni is set to address the nation today. There is no address. We shall inform the public as and when such an address is scheduled,” Nabusayi said.
The clarification followed speculative social media posts indicating that the President was due to address the nation on the COVID-19 situation and the 42-day lockdown he imposed on June 18.
Earlier in the day, Nabusayi tweeted pictures of the President, who was in the company of the First Lady and Education minister, Janet Kataaha Museveni, going for the Cabinet meeting at State House Entebbe, amid false reports that the President was sick and that he had died.
