Updated

Ugandan police have detained an academic who has been critical online of what she calls "despotic family rule" in this East African country.

Police spokesman Asan Kasingye said Sunday that Stella Nyanzi was arrested Friday for violating a law against misusing computers.

He said she would be charged with the offences of cyber harassment and offensive communication.

Nyanzi, a research fellow at Uganda's Makerere University, is popular on Facebook for her relentless criticisms of longtime Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni.

On Facebook recently, Nyanzi rebuked First Lady Janet Museveni, who also serves as education minister, for saying the government had no money to buy sanitary towels for poor schoolgirls.

Nyanzi has described the first lady as "foolish" and out of touch with the problems of ordinary Ugandans.