By: Melanie Aanyu

President Museveni has assented to the controversial Computer Misuse Bill to make it law in Uganda.

A statement from the Presidential Press Unit yesterday-Thursday indicated that the  Computer Misuse (Amendment) Bill 2022 was among the four bills that the president signed into law.

Others are the Physical Planners’ Registration Act, 2022, the Kampala Capital City (Amendment) Act, 2022 and the Mining and Minerals Act, 2022

Kampala Central MP, Muhammad Nsereko earlier this year tabled the   Computer Misuse (Amendment) Bill 2022 before parliament for debate.

It was later debated and passed.

According to the law,  recording of a person’s voice or video without permission, or unauthorised access to their personal information,  seeks to render a person convicted under the proposed law ineligible for public or elective office for a decade and imposes a fine of Shs15 million  or imprisonment not exceeding 10 years, or both.

The law has ben criticised by members of the public but MP Nsereko recently  defended it saying it will regulate social media and other media platforms especially when it comes to propagating fake news.