I stole prison uniform, says Stella Nyanzi

She implied that she had fled with the uniforms she wore while at Luzira women’s prison where she completed her 18 months sentence for insulting President Museveni.

Nyanzi in a telephone interview said she could not reveal details of how she was able to smuggle out the uniforms.

“Because of the need to protect other prisoners it is impossible for me to answer that question but all I can say is, I celebrate the defiance that allowed me to dare, because anyone who has been to prison in Uganda knows that is the worst offence a prisoner can commit,” Nyanzi said.

The spokesperson of Uganda Prisons Services, Mr Frank Baine, said Dr Nyanzi’s possessions are not prisons uniforms.
“Those are her claims, the official position is that every prisoner is searched on entry and exit and escorted out. So there is no way that those uniforms are our uniforms,” Mr Baine said in a telephone interview.

He added: “There is plenty of material on the streets and anyone can go and make a uniform and say it’s a prisons uniform.”

The law under the Prisons Act Uganda 2006 states that taking out prison article is a crime and is punishable under Section 104 of the Act. 

“Anyone who takes out from prison a prohibited article, commits an offence and is liable on conviction to a fine not exceeding thirty currency points or to imprisonment not exceeding one year.”

Ms Nyanzi said she was aware of her crime and is ready to serve the sentence.
“I’m more concerned about the symbolic value of a prison and not just stealing a uniform but keeping the stolen property until I reached exile and then publicising this. In other words, the act of theft is deliberate, it wasn’t an accident, it is also symbolic, it is a political act that is not mere theft,” she said on phone.

Nyanzi is currently in Munich, Germany, on scholarship as a writer.