UGANDA’S TOOTHLESS BATTLE ON GAYS

Source: Daily Monitor

UGANDA – 30 Aoctober 2009: Efforts behind a proposed law against homosexuality run counter to the Uganda Police’s interest in the offence, official records show.

The annual crime reports from 2007 and 2008 are silent on homosexuality, a felony under the Penal Code Act, suggesting the incidents are so rare that the authorities are not concerned enough to tally the complaints.

Asked to provide statistics on cases of homosexuality, several police officers said such figures were not readily available. “I actually don’t have the figures,” said Grace Akullo,
the Criminal Investigations Directorate officer under whose docket homosexuality falls.

Crime against ‘nature’

The authorities insist homosexuality, which is called “a crime against the law of nature” under the Penal Code Act, is difficult to investigate, as there must be a willing complainant.

In recent times, the publicity around some Police lack records of homosexuality
MP Bahati fronting homosexuality Bill Rodney Muhumuza Kampala sodomy cases, including those involving pastors in the Pentecostal community, has fed the anti-gay sentiment that makes the proposed law seem relevant.

However, in the absence of reliable facts and figures on the activities of alleged gay recruiters, there is little evidence to suggest that homosexuality threatens the mainstream culture in Uganda.

It emerged that Ndorwa West MP David Bahati, who sponsored the legislation, never sought the police’s input before producing a document that prescribes the death penalty for the offence of “aggravated homosexuality”.

Mr Bahati defended his work in an interview on Wednesday, saying that even one case of sodomy was enough to warrant such a law.

“We are not in a hate campaign,”

Mr Bahati said. “We are trying as much as we can to protect the traditional heterosexual family. It is under threat. Anybody who says it is minor underestimates the damage being done.”

Yesterday, at a press conference in Kampala, Ethics and Integrity Minister Nsaba Buturo renewed his warning against the gays, insisting the country was “under siege”.
He provided no details. “We don’t believe that human civilisationcan be defended by having anal sex,” Dr Buturo said. “I am telling these people to leave us alone….We are not joking.”
The proposed law would “make Uganda a leader” in efforts against gay culture in Africa, Dr Buturo said. “On the issue of homosexuality, let them forget [about human rights],” he said.

“The government has started biting.”

Death penalty Homosexuality remains a taboo subject in many African societies. If passed in its current state, the Anti-Homosexuality Bill (2009), condemned by rights groups, would make Uganda one of the most dangerous places for gay people.

For example, the proposed law prescribes the death penalty if the “offender is a person in authority over the person against whom the offence is committed”.

It also proposes a seven-year jail term for someone who “attempts” to commit homosexuality. Appearing before a committee of Parliament on Wednesday, religious leaders expressed support for the proposed law but refused to endorse the death penalty for “aggravated homosexuality”.

Yesterday, Dr Buturo said the government “may have to change” that part of the proposed law.