Minister for ICT Chris Baryomunsi has said that the government is looking for people who abuse others on the internet and falsely declare them dead.
According to Baryomunsi, this follows the spread of false information that the Speaker of Parliament Jacob Oulanyah is dead.
“There are those who communicate offensively by declaring someone dead. There are some cases which we take up as government, and it is true some of these messages which have been circulating we’re now hunting down the originators in the sense that we’re using technology to establish the people who originated these messages because through UCC we can trace back to the person who originated.
And if we get them, we shall definitely handle them in accordance with the law,” said Baryomunsi.
The minister said that the suspects will be charged under the Computer Misuse Act of 2011.
Earlier this week, the Deputy Speaker of Parliament, Anita Among, and Chief Justice Alfonse Owiny-Dollo flew to the US to check on the health situation of Oulanyah, who is currently hospitalized in Seattle City.
Oulanyah was last seen in Parliament on December 21, 2021, and Among has mostly been in charge of the parliamentary business.
“Together with close friends; His Lordship Alphonse Owiny Dollo, Hon.Nobert Mao and Health Minister Jane Ruth Aceng; I have visited Rt Hon Speaker Jacob Oulanyah at his Hospital Bed in Seattle.
He is receiving and responding to treatment under the close attention of his Doctors. Let us keep him in prayers for a speedy and complete recovery. I urge the public to respect his privacy and that of the family,” Among said in a tweet yesterday.