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Ugandan activist Stella Nyanzi leaves Kenya for Germany after month-long stay

By Nyaboga Kiage September 24th, 2022 2 min read

Ugandan activist Dr Stella Nyanzi, who has been in Kenya for almost a month now, on Saturday left the country for Germany.

The controversial scholar and poet has been promoting some of her books in Kenya. She promised she will be coming back soon.

“Asanteni sana waKenya kwa kunipenda! Mimi ni mshahiri wenu. Kwaheri (Thank you very much Kenyans for all the love you’ve shown me. I am your poet. Goodbye),” she said via social media.

Also read: Exclusive: Stella Nyanzi reveals when she will go back to Uganda

The scholar was planning to read her poems in Nairobi, Kisumu, Nakuru and Mombasa but she didn’t perform at the coastal city due to logistic issues.

When she failed to read the poems in Mombasa, she was invited to a private home in Kilimani where she read the poems.

Some of the books she has been promoting during her stay in Kenya include Eulogies of My Mouth: Poem for a Poisoned Uganda, No Roses From My mouth: Poems From Prison and Don’t Come in My Mouth; Poems That Rattled Uganda.

The last two books were published in 2020.

Also read: Ugandan activist Stella Nyanzi ‘conned’ in Nairobi

In 2021, Dr Nyanzi fled Kampala with her three children initially for Nairobi and then Germany citing threats to her life after her boyfriend was arrested by Ugandan authorities in the wake of the contested polls.

She fled months after she unsuccessfully contested Kampala Woman Representative seat on a Forum for Democratic Change (FDC), a political party associated with seasoned politician Kiiza Besigye.

Known for her hard-hitting and at times vulgar messages on social media, Dr Nyanzi was once arrested and jailed for a year on allegations of insulting the family of President Yoweri Museveni on social media.

The scholar is best remembered for stripping naked and screaming in protest in a fight over office space during her stint as a lecturer at Makerere University.

Also read: Ugandan activist Stella Nyanzi involved in accident during Kenyan tour