After a highly emotional and chaotic session, Uganda’s parliament on Tuesday enacted comprehensive anti-gay legislation that sets harsh new punishments for same-sex partnerships
After the last vote, the speaker of the house, Annet Anita Among, declared, “all eyes have it,” adding, “The bill passed in record time.”
The Ugandan parliament was scheduled to vote on anti-gay legislation on Tuesday. The measure calls for severe additional penalties for same-sex relationships in a nation where homosexuality is already against the law.
Anyone in the conservative East African country who engages in same-sex conduct or who publicly identifies as LGBTQ could be sentenced to up to 10 years in prison under the new law.
“The Anti-Homosexuality Bill is ready and will be tabled (put) before parliament for a vote this afternoon,” said Robina Rwakoojo, chair of the legal and parliamentary affairs committee, which has been studying the legislation.
Widespread public support for the law exists in Uganda, and civil society response has been muted as a result of years of civic space being reduced under President Yoweri Museveni’s increasingly authoritarian leadership.
Yet, Museveni has continuously made it clear he does not consider the matter to be a priority and would instead like to preserve his good connections with Western funders and investors.
Homophobic language has routinely been used in discussions of the measure in parliament, with Museveni this week referring to LGBT individuals as “these deviants.”
“Homosexuals are deviations from normal. Why? Is it by nature or nurture? We need to answer these questions,” the 78-year-old told lawmakers.
“We need a medical opinion on that. We shall discuss it thoroughly,” he added, in a manoeuvre interpreted by analysts and foreign diplomats as a delaying tactic.
“Museveni has historically taken into account the damage of the bill to Uganda’s geopolitics, particularly in terms of relations with the West, and in terms of donor funding,” said Kristof Titeca, an expert on East African affairs at the University of Antwerp.
“His suggestion to ask for a medical opinion can be understood in this context: a way to put off what is a deeply contentious political issue,” Titeca said.
The parliamentary committee looking into the bill was informed on Saturday by Uganda’s attorney general, Kiryowa Kiwanuka, that the country’s pre-colonial laws “adequately provided for an offence.”
“unconstitutional clauses”
As the parliamentary session began, Fox Odoi-Oywelowo, a congressman from Museveni’s National Resistance Movement party, pleaded with members not to enact the measure.
He continued speaking despite attempts by some MPs to repeatedly shout over him. “The bill contains provisions that are unconstitutional, reverses the gains registered in the fight against gender-based violence, and criminalizes individuals instead of conduct that contravenes legal provisions,” he said.
“It was introduced during a time when anti-homosexual sentiments have been whipped up across the country and is not based on any evidence to show that incidents of homosexuality have increased and require additional legislative intervention,” he added.
Conspiracy theories that accuse mysterious international entities of encouraging homosexuality have gained currency on Ugandan social media in recent months.
Earlier this month, Frank Mugisha, executive director of Sexual Minorities Uganda, a prominent homosexual rights organization whose operations were shut down by the government the previous year, claimed he had already received a deluge of calls from LGBTQ persons regarding the new bill.
“Community members are living in fear,” he said.
Six males were allegedly detained by police last week in the southern lakeside town of Jinja for “practicing homosexuality,” according to authorities.
According to the police, six more guys were detained on the same charge on Sunday.
Due to colonial-era regulations that make homosexuality illegal, Uganda is infamous for its intolerance of the practise.
Nonetheless, since the country’s 1962 separation from the United Kingdom, there has never been a conviction for consenting same-sex behaviour.
In 2014, Ugandan lawmakers approved a law mandating life in jail for anyone found engaging in homosexual intercourse.
Before a court ultimately overturned the measure on a technicality, the act provoked widespread outcry and several Western countries responded by withholding or redirecting millions of dollars in government help.
