Parliament Passes Stringent Laws Against Homosexuality In Uganda

Posted by: Andre Reagan in Uganda news May 6, 2021

The Ugandan parliament has passed the 2019 bill on sexual offences which reintroduced the ban on homosexuality or same-sex relationships after an intense debate in parliament.

The MPs went ahead to reject the proposal that allows a person who had consented to a sexual act to withdraw that consent at any time before or during the performance of the sexual act.

This ban on homosexual relationships follows up the Anti Homosexuality Act passed by the 9th parliament in 2013.

President Museveni signed the bill into law in 2014 and it proposed life imprisonment or the death penalty for the culprits.

However, after much criticism from the Western powers, the Constitutional Court annulled the law over quorum issues.

The legal and Parliamentary Affairs Committee chairperson Jacob Oboth Oboth said they were happy that the ban on homosexuality had finally happened. He added that issues of quorum would not surface again.

He went ahead to say that the bill also suggests introducing ‘post penetration’ consent. This is a situation where two people initially agree to have sex together. But during the act, one party withdraws their consent due to a change of mind.

The main motive of this bill is to design a specific law to prevent and punish sexual offences. The aim of this is also to prevent sexual violence, increase the punishment of sexual offenders. To protect victims of sexual offences during their trials and providing for extraterritorial application of the law. To repeal some provisions of the Penal Code Act among others.

The mentioned proposal is found in unnatural offences which also bars sexual acts with animals or sex in a way contrary to nature. The punishment for this is imprisonment for five years. Although the proposal was read before the committee, members adopted it with no objection or comment.

Now in an intense debate in Parliament, the MPs generally supported the bill. However, divisions came along gender lines. This is especially when it came to issues of withdrawal of consent during sexual intercourse, before finally rejecting it.

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