London, 11th July 2012. London Summit on Family Planning

Popular Ugandan scholar and government critic, Stela Nyazi was charged in court yesterday for referring to President Yoweri Museveni as “a pair of buttocks” in a Facebook post.

Nyazi was arrested for violating a law against misusing computers and charged with the offences of cyber harassment and offensive communication.

In her defense, Nyazi said that she has often used metaphor as a figure of speech in her criticism and went ahead to cite other instances where she had thrown similar jabs at Museveni and the first lady.

Nyanzi pleaded not guilty to the charges this afternoon, while prosecutors questioned her mental health. The court then declined to hear her bail application, meaning Nyanzi is to be remanded in custody until 25 April.

Nyanzi had previously thrown a shade at Janet Museveni, who is also the country’s Minister of Education for saying that the government did not have money to provide free sanitary towels to school girls.

“What sort of mother allows her daughters to keep away from school because they are too poor to afford padding materials that would adequately protect them from the shame and ridicule that comes by staining their uniforms with menstrual blood? What malice plays in the heart of a woman who sleeps with a man who finds money for millions of bullets, billions of bribes, and uncountable ballots to stuff into boxes but she cannot ask him to prioritise sanitary pads for poor schoolgirls? She is no Mama! She is just Janet!” Nyazi posted on her Facebook page

“I should visit [Mrs Museveni] without protection during my next menstruation period, sit in her spotless sofas and arise after staining her soul with my menstrual blood! That will be my peaceful demonstration in solidarity with Uganda’s poor adolescent girls.” She added.

Ms Nyanzi is also famed for her nude protest last year, in disapproval of an eviction from an office at the prestigious Makerere University’s Institute of Social Research.

She locked herself in at the premises, and stripped naked in front of TV cameras.