Uganda Government Set To Pass ‘Kill The Gays’ Bill, Announces Death Penalty For Homosexuals

The bil known as the ‘Kill the Gays’ bill was nullified five years ago on a technicality, but the government now has plans to resurrect it within weeks.

‘Homosexuality is not natural to Ugandans, but there has been massive recruitment by gay people in schools, and especially among the youth, where they are promoting the falsehood that people are born like that,’ Ethics and Integrity Minister Simon Lokodo said.

‘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.’

African countries like Uganda have some of the world’s most prohibitive laws governing homosexuality. Same-sex relationships are considered taboo and gay sex is a crime across most of the continent, with punishments ranging from imprisonment to death.

Earlier this year, Brunei sparked an international outcry over plans to impose the death penalty for gay sex, backtracking only after intense criticism. Lokodo said Uganda’s bill, which is supported by President Yoweri Museveni, will be reintroduced in parliament in the coming weeks, and it is expected to be voted on before the end of the year.

Moves to restrict LGBT rights and criminalise gay sex in other countries have sparked protests and sanctions. In May, Brunei was forced to extend a moratorium on the death penalty for gay sex after celebrities such as actor George Clooney condemned a law allowing whipping and stoning to death.

Last November, anti-gay remarks by a senior official in Tanzania led to the east African nation’s second biggest donor, Denmark, withholding $10 million in aid.

Uganda faced widespread international condemnation when the previous bill was signed off by Museveni in 2014. The United States reduced aid, imposed visa restrictions and cancelled military exercises. The World Bank, Sweden, Norway, Denmark and the Netherlands also suspended or redirected aid. 

Pepe Julian Onziema from Sexual Minorities Uganda, an alliance of LGBT organisations, said its members were fearful of the bill.

‘When the law was introduced last time, it whipped up homophobic sentiment and hate crimes,’said Onziema.

‘Hundreds of LGBT+ people have been forced to leave the country as refugees and more will follow if this law is enacted. It will criminalise us from even advocated for LGBT rights, let alone supporting and protecting sexual minorities.'

Onziema said three gay men and one transgender woman had been killed in homophobic attacks in Uganda this year – the latest last week when a gay man was bludgeoned to death.