In Uganda, it is expected that 500,000 people identify as a member of the LGBT community. This figure is difficult to measure because some are afraid to come out. Not only do these people face violence, discrimination and harassment on a daily basis, often enforced by state officials (see LGBT Abuses in Uganda), but they experience legal challenges that are not typically faced by non-LGBT persons. Penal Code There are already laws in place criminalising homosexuality under British colonial law. Section 145 of the Penal Code implements life imprisonment for the act of “unnatural offences” as listed below: “(a) has carnal knowledge of any person against the order of nature; (b) has carnal knowledge of an animal; or (c) permits a male person to have carnal knowledge of him or her against the order of nature.” Section 146 of the same code criminalises any attempt to commit the offences listed in section 145. Anyone found to break Section 146 of the Penal Code is liable to imprisonment for seven years. Section 148 bans indecent practices. The code reads: “Any person who, whether in public or in private, commits any act of gross indecency with another person or procures another person to commit any act of gross indecency with him or her or attempts to procure the commission of any such act by any person with himself or herself or with another person, whether in public or in private, commits an offence and is liable to imprisonment for seven years.” Anti-Homosexuality Act (Kill the Gays Bill) In February 2014, the Anti-Homosexuality act, otherwise known as Kill the Gays bill, was nullified on a technicality. There were not enough lawmakers present enough to vote. The bill subjected LGBT members to life imprisonment for the “promotion and recruitment” by gay people and the death sentence for consensual same-sex acts. In October 2019, the government announced its intentions to reintroduce the Anti-Homosexuality Act to prevent a rise in “unnatural sex” in East Africa. Uganda’s ethics and integrity minister Simon Lokodo told Thomson Reuters Foundation that: “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.” In the same interview with Reuters, Lokodo said: “homosexuality is not natural to Ugandans, but there has been a massive recruitment by gay people in schools, and especially among the youth, where they are promoting the falsehood that people are born like that.” A spokesperson for Uganda’s President Yoweri Museveni dismissed the plans to reintroduce the legislation. Senior researcher at Human Rights Watch Neela Ghoshal told NBC News that “every few months, an Ugandan politician threatens to revive the “kill the gays” bill and it brings them the political notoriety they want.” The Anti-Homosexuality Bill has resulted in many members of the LGBT community seeking asylum and claiming refugee status.
CP
Comments