Uganda announces 'kill the gays' law, death penalty for homosexuality

Uganda will reintroduce a controversial anti-homosexuality legislation

Representative-LGBT-Flag-Pixabay Representative image | Pixabay

The Ugandan minister of integrity and ethics on Thursday announced that the country would reintroduce a controversial bill, commonly known as the ‘kill the gays’ bill, in the next session of parliament in the coming weeks.

While homosexuality is already illegal in Uganda, the revised bill would impose the death penalty on homosexuals.

The minister, Simon Lokodo, told Reuters, “Our current penal law is limited. It only criminalises the act. We want it made clear that anyone who is even involved in promotion and recruitment has to be criminalised. Those that do grave acts will be given the death sentence.”

The Uganda Anti-Homosexuality Act was passed by the country’s parliament in 2014, only to be struck down by the Constitutional Court of Uganda in August that year over a procedural issue—not enough lawmakers were present at the time of its passing.

Lokodo says the bill has the support of Uganda’s president, Yoweri Museveni, and that his government has talked to MPs to mobilise them in large numbers.

When the bill was first announced in 2009, it met with international opposition for its provision that homosexuals be punished with life imprisonment. The Barack Obama administration released a statement strongly opposing “efforts… that would criminalize homosexuality and move against the tide of history.”

The World Bank and countries like the US, Sweden, Netherlands, Norway and Denmark, amongst other European nations, collectively cut or redirected aid worth $140 million to Uganda following the passage of the bill in 2014. The World Bank alone had suspended $90 million which was to go to Uganda’s health system, an amount then representing at least 20 per cent of Uganda’s health budget.

A 2013 Pew Global Attitudes representative survey found that 96 per cent of Ugandans believed that homosexuality should not be accepted by society (with similar figures reflecting attitudes in Sengal, Ghana, Nigeria and Kenya).

Homosexuality has long been severely penalised in Uganda, on account of colonial-era laws and mindsets, including anti-sodomy legislation, introduced when Uganda was a British protectorate.

A similar legislation was enacted in Brunei in April, which allowed for those found guilty of same-sex sexual intercourse to be stoned to death.

Ugandan human rights activist Kasha Jacquelin commented on the development to Outright Action International, saying, “The timing of the resurrection of the bill is callous—LGBTIQ people are being used as a scapegoat as elections approach. Violence against us has escalated in recent months, countless community members have fled, and I fear it will only get worse. We urgently need support from the international community if we are to stand up against the witch hunt being launched against us.”

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