Certainly, after the experience of 2014 the Ugandan government is surely less willing to grant assent to similar legislation that would undoubtedly draw condemnation and an unwelcome response from the international community. Our sovereign credit rating also took a hit due to the passing of the anti-gay law. Not only did the British and American governments, encouraged by global rights groups and LGBTQI campaigners, raise the spectre of retaliation, but the World Bank decided to rescind a $90m loan to Uganda’s health system. Indeed, after Uganda passed the “Kill the gays bill” – as it was dubbed locally – in 2014, its reputation on the international arena suffered. But there is also the fact that granting assent to this law – not least when it was not legislation the government put forward – would trigger an outcry from the international community. The Ugandan government will not sign this anti-gay legislation into law in part because it was introduced by an outgoing legislator and approved by a now-dissolved parliament. The government has already indicated this will not be granted, so the legislation will not become law. Passed in the final days of an outgoing parliament, through a private member’s bill introduced by an outgoing legislator, and without government support, this legislation needs assent. The government chose not to appeal.įortunately, this time we are unlikely to need to go to such lengths. But with an independent and capable judiciary, the Act was annulled. Back then, we had the entire political system – every single legislator, both from the government and the opposition, save I and one other – against us. In 2014, I played a small part in making sure that anti-LGBTQI forces in Uganda do not succeed in writing their hate into law: I was one of the petitioners in the case that successfully overturned the infamous anti-gay law.
Last month, the parliament of my country once again voted to make homosexuality a criminal offence, this time with a 10-year prison sentence.
Seven years after an act of parliament made homosexuality a crime punishable by death, the anti-gay campaigners of Uganda are at it again.