Summary
· Homosexuality is already illegal in Uganda and it was not immediately clear what new penalties had been agreed upon
Kampala. Uganda's parliament on Tuesday passed sweeping
anti-gay legislation which proposes tough new penalties for same-sex
relationships, following a highly charged and chaotic session.
"The ayes have it,"
parliamentary speaker Annet Anita Among said after the final vote, adding that
the "bill passed in record time."
Legislators amended significant
portions of the original draft law, with all but one speaking against the bill.
Homosexuality is already illegal in
Uganda and it was not immediately clear what new penalties had been agreed
upon.
MP Fox Odoi-Oywelowo, who spoke
against the bill and who belongs to President Yoweri Museveni's National
Resistance Movement party, told AFP that under the final version of the
legislation, offenders would face life imprisonment or even the death penalty
for "aggravated" offences.
"This House will not shy to
restrict any right to the extent the House recognises," Among said.
The bill will next go to President
Museveni, who can choose to use his veto or sign it into law.
The legislation enjoys broad public
support in Uganda and reaction from civil society has been muted following
years of erosion of civic space under Museveni's increasingly authoritarian
rule.
Nevertheless, the 78-year-old leader
has consistently signalled he does not view the issue as a priority and would
prefer to maintain good relations with Western donors and investors.
Discussion about the bill in
parliament was laced with homophobic rhetoric, with lawmakers conflating child
sexual abuse with consensual same-sex activity between adults.
- 'Living in fear' -
In recent months, conspiracy
theories accusing shadowy international forces of promoting homosexuality have
gained traction on social media in Uganda.
Museveni last week referred to gay
people as "these deviants."
"Homosexuals are deviations
from normal. Why? Is it by nature or nurture? We need to answer these
questions," he 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 told AFP.
On Saturday, Uganda's attorney
general Kiryowa Kiwanuka told the parliamentary committee scrutinising the bill
that existing colonial-era laws "adequately provided for an offence".
Frank Mugisha, executive director of
Sexual Minorities Uganda, a leading gay rights organisation whose operations
were suspended by the authorities last year, told AFP earlier this month he had
already been inundated with calls from LGBTQ people over the new bill.
"Community members are living
in fear," he said.
Last week, police said they had arrested
six men for "practising homosexuality" in the southern lakeside town
of Jinja.
Another six men were arrested on the
same charge on Sunday, according to police.
Uganda is notorious for intolerance
of homosexuality -- which was criminalised under colonial-era laws.
But since independence from Britain
in 1962 there has never been a conviction for consensual same-sex activity.
In 2014, Ugandan lawmakers passed a
bill that called for life in prison for people caught having gay sex.
The legislation sparked
international condemnation, with some Western nations freezing or redirecting
millions of dollars of government aid in response, before a court later struck
down the law on a technicality.
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