University student drags Opondo, Kasingye to court for violating his rights through social media

A student has dragged the government spokesperson Ofwono Opondo and the police’s Chief Political Commissar, AIGP Asan Kasingye to the Civil Division of the High court for blocking him on Twitter.

Hillary Innocent Sseguya who describes himself as a Ugandan citizen pursuing a Master’s degree in International Relations at the Harvard University in the US says he was blocked from followed the two government officials on twitter which he avers is illegal.

“I am only capable of getting information relating to my country’s governance and to communicate to the respective officials including the fountain of honor through their twitter handles but blocking me violates my constitutional rights,”Sseguya says.

“The respective actions of the government officials are illegal, procedurally improper, unreasonable, irrational and infringes on the applicant’s right to participate in the affairs of government and peaceful activities to influence the policies of government-guaranteed under Article 38 of the Constitution.”

Sseguya also contends that the actions of the government officials in blocking him on their twitter handle violated his right to access to information in possession of the government, guaranteed in article 41(1) of the Constitution and right to just and fair treatment in administrative decisions under article 42 of the Constitution.

He says that because the officials use their twitter accounts to disseminate information regarding their offices, it would be a violation of the constitution to block anyone from seeing what they post and would be denying the public a right to information.

“The actions did not protect my freedom against political persecution and to restrictions to my rights which are acceptable and demonstrably justifiable in a free and democratic society.”

Orders

The Harvard University student wants the High Court to declare that the actions of blocking him on twitter were unlawful and illegal.

He also wants the court to order the officials to unblock him on twitter but also issue an order prohibiting them from ever blocking him again.

“The applicant seeks an order prohibiting Ofwono Opondo, AIGP Asan Kasingye from  any further blocking of the applicant through his social media from viewing, following, contacting, replying, liking, tagging and retweeting on their respective twitter social media platform handles.”

He also wants general damages for the inconvenience caused to him by the three government officials.

The matters come on the heels 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.