KAMPALA —Responding government’s plot to introduce a death penalty for consensual same-sex sexual acts, Amnesty International’s Director for East Africa, the Horn and the Great Lakes, Joan Nyanyuki said it is outrageous that instead of the government taking urgent steps to decriminalize gay sex, they want gay people executed.
“This is going to fire-up more hatred in an already homophobic environment,” said adding that “this is an example of how Uganda’s politicians are stoking dangerous intolerance and bias against LGBTI people.”
Nyanyuki has since asked Uganda’s MPs to resoundingly reject any plan to legalize this kind of bigotry and witch hunting of anyone who is perceived as being different.
She claimed that on 5 October, Brian Wassa, a gay paralegal succumbed to brain hemorrhage after been hacked in the head by unknown persons the previous day at his home in Kampala.
According to Sexual Minorities Uganda (SMUG), an LGBTI organization, he is the fourth LGBTI person to have been killed in the past three months in the wake of heightened anti-LGBTI sentiments from political leaders.
She added that others were a transwoman from Gomba district, a gay man in Kayunga district, one from Kampala and another in Jinja
Government has however dismissed claims that it is plotting to reintroduce any new law with regards to the regulation of LGBT activities in Uganda
Mr. Ofwono Opondo, the government spokesperson said the current provisions in the country’s Penal Code are sufficient, the situation doesn’t warrant further regulations.
“Government hereby clarifies that it does not intend to introduce any new law with regards to the regulation of LGBTQ activities in Uganda because the current provisions in the Penal Code are sufficient,” Mr. Ofwono Opondo said
