Chronicle Editor
Uganda announced its plans yesterday for a Bill to be passed that will impose the death penalty on homosexuals.
The “Kill the Gays” Bill was invalidated five years ago on a technicality which included the death penalty.
In February 2014, Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni signed the Anti-Homosexuality Bill that would increase the penalty for same-sex relations from seven years to life. But it was annulled by courts in August 2014, News24 previously reported. Activists hailed it as a victory for the country.
Now, the Ugandan government plans to introduce the Bill within the next few weeks.
The government said it would curb the rise in “unnatural sex”, where they are “promoting the falsehood that people are born like that”, the Independent reported.
Across Africa, homosexuality is seen as a punishable offence and is highly restricted. As for 2016, same sex acts were outlawed in 33 of the 54 African countries recognised by the UN. And more than half the countries in the sub-Saharan African region have anti-homosexuality laws.
News24 reported that homosexuality was, under Sharia law, potentially punishable by death in Sudan, northern Nigeria, and Mauritania, where the death penalty has not been abolished. In Somalia, gay men are believed to have been executed in territory ruled by the Al-Shabaab jihadist group.
Angola, Mozambique and the Seychelles have scrapped anti-gay laws in recent years.
However, gay marriage was legalised in South Africa in 2006. — AP
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