For a couple of weeks now, Dr Stella Nyanzi, a writer and critic of the Museveni regime residing in Germany, has been writing scathing posts on her social media platforms to hold her fellow exile, Kakwenza Rukirabashaija, accountable, unfortunately, in the course of doing so, she has slipped off the exact trajectory, as she has not only dehumanised those involved in her revelations but also endangered activism in its entirety as she has become the regime’s gun on the heads of her fellow dissidents. Privacy has been flouted even at the international level, as we saw PEN Deutschland convincing her to pull down the letter they wrote, something she construed as intimidation and selective democracy, and later refusing to do what she was asked in the name of fighting for Kakwenza’s children.

This scandal later attracted different voices, especially women—feminists, who have come out to push this agenda of holding the exiled writer accountable. Some have claimed that he once promised them heaven and earth in exchange for their love.

But while all this takes lead, the country’s priorities are unprioritized by the same people holding an individual accountable—the abduction rate of Ugandans by the state soars, corruption by politicians, including the state goes unchecked, roads are ailing, recently our Mulago National hospital was allocated 17 billion, lower than the medical budget allocated to the URA, and Dr Besigye, Eron Kizza, and many people rot in jail on lucid charges—but no one speaks about these pertinent issues.

One might conclude that while some people fight injustice and grim governance in Uganda, they should at the same time fight for themselves against their fellow activists—how sad! In a Facebook post dated April 3, 2025, Yuliana Namubiru, a Ugandan US-based journalist, condemned Stella’s behaviour.

She writes:

Stella Nyanzi is not fronting a feminist revolution; she’s a blooming wrecking ball!

Let’s stop pretending that Stella Nyanzi is some sort of "fearless truth-teller". Her recent posts are not bold, not brave, and certainly not revolutionary. Her posts are reckless, vindictive, and dangerous.

Whilst many of you cheer her on and are clapping for her like trained seals, you’re sadly mistaking cruelty for courage. It’s time to call what she’s doing exactly what it is: a public descent into TOXIC OPPORTUNISM at the expense of dignity, safety, and the opposition's struggle.

Her so-called “accountability campaign” targeting Kakwenza has become an embarrassing circus. It’s not rooted in justice in any way, shape, or form. It’s a deeply personal vendetta masked as advocacy.

By dragging Kakwenza's children into public discourse, she has violated every boundary of decency. These kids are minors and are already caught up in a storm of abandonment, upheaval, and divorce. They deserve protection, not exploitation. She’s weaponised their suffering to shame their father, turning their pain into props for her outrage theatre.

Nze nabagamba juuzi, this is not activism. This is performative cruelty. There’s nothing radical about using another person’s trauma as ammunition. Publicly alluding to the brutal torture Kakwenza endured and twisting it to attack his masculinity does not challenge M7 and Kainewaragi’s state violence; it mimics it. The regime dehumanises victims to silence them. Oyo Stella wamwe dehumanises them to boost her relevance. It’s the same playbook, just written in a different ink or keyboard.

Ate this isn’t an isolated incident. Her reckless posts at the start of the week endangered dissidents by carelessly revealing networks used to escape the regime’s grip. She’s not just loud; she’s lethal, handing M7 the tools to track and crush those still in hiding or needing to escape in the future. The freedom she claims to exercise WILL cost others their safety.

What’s worse is that she cloaks this destructiveness in the language of mbu "feminism and resistance", alimbe mwe sinze. What she’s doing isn’t feminism; it’s antagonism. It’s not solidarity, it’s freaking sabotage. She doesn’t speak truth to power, nahhhh, she plays power games with people’s private suffering. She hasn’t exposed injustice; she’s hijacked it for personal clout.

And through all of this, the ACTUAL victims, Kakwenza’s children, his wife, and yes, even Kakwenza himself, are collateral damage to her ego trip.

Stella Nyanzi wants to be seen as a fighter for the voiceless, but all she’s done is amplify her own voice while drowning out the very people she claims to defend. If she truly believed in liberation, she would know when to step back, when to protect instead of provoke, and when to heal rather than harm.

Even worse, her relentless brawling, especially her venomous jabs at fellow opposition figures like Bobi Wine has become a gift to the regime. M7 and Kainewaragi don’t need to silence the opposition when Stella is doing the job for them. Fracturing solidarity, stirring infighting, and poisoning public discourse with her ego-fuelled vendettas.

Ugandans are dying in floods, losing loved ones, suffocating under inflated UMEME bills, and being bled dry by the URA... YET, the national conversation has been hijacked by her latest desperate point-scoring. Real issues are getting buried under her narcissistic circus. She’s not fighting the regime, she’s feeding it. Loudly. Proudly. And destructively. She is not pushing UG's forward, she’s tearing the opposition apart from within.

Byebo!

 FEATURE IMAGE COPYRIGHT: THE EASTAFRICAN