Homosexuals, landlords, brothel proprietors, chief executives of pro-gay organisations, journalists and film directors face imprisonment or fines, ranging from Shs5m to Shs100m, if the new Anti-Homosexuality Bill is enacted in its current form. Prepared by Bugiri Municipality Member of Parliament Asuman Basalirwa, the Bill gazetted last Friday seeks to criminalise homosexuality as well as its promotion and financing. Its penalties overall are comparably lesser than those specified in the minister David Bahati-sponsored anti-gay law that court quashed in 2014 on grounds that it was enacted without quorum. or instance, offences of homosexuality and attempted or aggravated homosexuality which in the older version were punishable with life imprisonment in the proposed legislation carry a maximum 10-year jail term. The date for tabling the Private Member’s Bill, which follows a grant last week of leave by the House to MP Basalirwa to draft the legislation, is yet to be fixed. The objectives of the Bill are four-fold: prohibit same-sex sexual relations, strengthen Uganda’s capacity to deal with domestic and foreign threats to the heterosexual family, safeguard traditional and cultural values and protect youth/children against gay and lesbian practice. Mr Basalirwa, the designated mover, argues that the Bill is necessary to cure inadequacies in the Penal Code Act that provides for unnatural sex, but “lacks provisions on procurement, promoting, disseminating literature and other pantographic materials concerning the offences of homosexuality”. “As a result, there is a need for a legislation to enhance offences relating to homosexuality and clear provisions for charging, investigating, prosecuting, convicting and sentencing of offenders,” he notes in a preamble justification. The Bill provides a fine of Shs100m for an entity promoting homosexuality, whether through printing of materials, funding, hosting or complicity, as well as deregistration of such organisation’s chief executive. Persons who run brothels for homosexuals risk seven years’ imprisonment while landlords who rent property to homosexuals face a year in jail. There is a provision of five-year imprisonment for anyone convicted of attempted or actual procurement of homosexuality while anyone found guilty of conducting/contracting same-sex marriage risks 10-year imprisonment. Under the Bill, an editor, journalist, publisher and film director who discloses the identity of a homosexuality victim without authority of court or victim, once convicted, can be fined up to Shs5m. The proposed law also gives courts wide powers to order protection for a child deemed likely to engage in homosexuality, and also determine the amount of compensation due to a victim of homosexuality by an offender. “A magistrate’s court may, if satisfied that a child is likely to engage in acts of homosexuality, upon application by any person, issue a protection order,” the draft law reads in part, without specifying the parameters for suspecting a child’s susceptibility. In the case of foreigners, it provides for the extradition of a homosexual offender. The remedies in the gazetted Bill, according to the drafters, include a prohibition of marriage between persons of the same sex, penalisation of homosexual behaviour and related practices, stopping promotion of homosexuality and protection and provision of compensation to victims. In the proposed law, homosexuality is defined as “same-gender or same-sex sexual acts”, broadly indicated to include romance, sexual intercourse and unlawful use of objects for gays and lesbians sex. In an interview yesterday, Mr Robert Kirenga, the executive director of the National Coalition of Uganda Human Rights Defenders, said the government had got its priorities upside down in pursing gays and lesbians when the country is grappling with motley problems.
