Her office was closed and, in an example of the West African feminist cultural practice of what the scholar Naminata Diabate has called "naked agency," made a nude protest against her boss.
[31] On 6 March 2017, Nyanzi launched the Pads4girlsUg Project, due to her concerns about girls missing school because they could not afford menstrual products.
On 11 April 2017, doctors from Butabika Hospital were asked to carry out a psychiatric assessment examination to determine whether she was insane, as the government prosecutor was alleging.
However, she resisted the examination and requested that her personal doctor and at least one family member should be present if they want to carry out a medical test on her.
[41] She did not request bail because she believed she was safer in jail and because she wanted to continue her education work with the women in prison.
[44] In January 2019, Nyanzi asked that her court date be delayed as she was ill and had suffered a miscarriage in prison.
[45] The international press has called her "one of Africa's most prominent gender rights activists,"[28] "a leading scholar in the emerging field of African queer studies,"[29] and a leader in the fight against "repressive anti-queer laws" and for "freedom of speech.
"[29] Her scholarship has provided "insight into the effects of patriarchy, misogyny and homophobia in Uganda, The Gambia, and Tanzania.
[47] Human Rights Watch condemned her arrest as "an indicator that those who express critical views of the Ugandan government, especially the first family, can face its wrath.
"[50] Al Jazeera English reported that her arrest was due to Museveni's plans to rule for life and his intolerance of critics.
[48] The Canadian Globe and Mail reported that her arrest was "at the heart of it all it [about] her imaginative use of language and her fierce defiance of the perceived limits for Ugandan women.
"[51] The Guardian reported that her "attack on her government’s refusal to fund sanitary wear for girls led to a successful crowdfunding campaign, and prison.