This week, Parliament started processing the Anti-Homosexuality Bill, 2023 after the Ministry of Finance issued a certificate of financial implication.
Bugiri Municipality Member of Parliament Asuman Basalirwa presented the Private Member’s Bill for First Reading on Thursday, 09 March 2023.
Basalirwa also tabled the certificate of financial implication issued on 08 March 2023 and commended the Ministry of Finance for availing it.The legislator noted that the Minister for Finance opined that the Bill should be aligned to the National Development Agenda.
Basalirwa asserted that the bill is being introduced in good faith and aimed at protecting Uganda’s cherished culture.
He noted that the goals of the bill are; Criminalization of homosexuality with a liability of imprisonment of two to ten years for committing homosexuality, aggravated homosexuality, attempted homosexuality, aiding and abetting homosexuality, conspiracy to commit homosexuality and related practices.
The new bill will allow the jailing of LGBTQ individuals for up to 10 years for declaring their identity or touching with homosexual intentions.
However, this is not the first Anti-Gay bill to be tabled in Uganda’s Parliament. On 20 December 2013 Parliament passed the Anti-Homosexuality bill which prohibited sexual relations between persons of the same sex. The act was previously called the “Kill the Gays bill” in the western mainstream media due to the death penalty clauses proposed in the original version, but the penalty was later amended to life in prison.
The initial Anti-Gay Bill was introduced by Ndorwa West lawmaker David Bahati and it was signed into law/Act by President Yoweri Museveni on 24 February 2014. However, on 1st August 2014, the Constitutional Court ruled the Act invalid on procedural grounds.
Unlike Bahati’s bill, the penalties of Basalirwa’s bill are overall comparably lesser than those specified in Bahati’s. However, what are those penalties and whom are they affecting? Here are some of the specified penalties;
One will face 10 years in jail for aggravated or attempted aggravated homosexuality. If one or an entity is found guilty of promoting homosexuality, whether through the printing of materials, funding, hosting or complicity will face a penalty of Shs100m.
Anyone found guilty of procuring or attempted procuring of homosexuality by threat will face 5 years imprisonment10 years jail term for contracting /conducting same-sex marriage and Courts will always determine compensation for the homosexuality victims.
Editors, journalists, publishers and film directors who disclose the identity of homosexuality victim without authority will face a fine of Shs5m. 7-year imprisonment for those who run brothels for homosexuals while landlords who rent to homosexuals will face a year in jail. The bill will Court to order protection for a child likely to engage in homosexuality.
According to a reporter in Africa, “Africans see homosexuality as being both un-African and un-Christian that is why 38 of 53 African nations criminalize homosexuality in some way.
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