gay priest in dar es salaam court

By Haki za Binadam

May 25, 2005: A catholic gay priest was brought to court on the afternoon of 24 May and charged for being caught in action with his partner. The pair was rounded on the night of the 19 May at the University of Dar es Salaam having sex in a pick up Toyota Hilux bakkie.

The cleric, known as Father Sixtus Kimaro (39) was brought to the Kisutu District Court under very tight security. Fr. Kimaro was initially supposed to appear in court on the 23rd of May, but the case was postponed to 24 May due to unexplained reasons.

According to sources, the priest and his 19 years old partner (name with held) have been in love for almost two years now. The priest has been suspended from his duties awaiting his trial and has been denied bail waiting for further police investigations until Tuesday next week.

In an unrelated incident, the Guardian newspaper published an article on 24 May reporting that a gay man has been jailed for life.

The Kinondoni District court passed the sentence after finding John Paul (39) guilty of sodomising his "partner" for the period of eight months. In mitigation, the partner, a 16 years old boy, agreed that they have been having sex for that period and that he never really reported the incident to anyone.

Trial magistrate, William Mtaki, said in passing the judgment that the accused deserved nothing less than a maximum sentence for the offence. He also added that homosexual "incidents were on the rise in the country".

The prosecution lined up five witnesses who told the court that they knew of the above mentioned affair with the boy for a long time.

Although the age of consent in Tanzania is 16, section 154 to 157 of the Penal Code describes homosexuality, or sexual acts between two men, as criminal with a maximum penalty of up to 14 years' imprisonment.