Police Intensify Hunt For Gay Activists In Uganda

The security forces in Uganda’s capital city Kampala are hunting for a group of suspected gay activists and sympathizers including Sonko Abdallah, a resident of Kawempe Division, to face criminal charges referred against him via case file number SD/REF 23/17/1/2021, for the offence of Associating with LGBT Groups.

The manhunt comes after the suspect’s disappearance and failure to present himself to Kawempe Katale Police Station, despite several summons addressed to him.

It is alleged that Sonko, a resident of Kawempe Division, was arrested on January 17 2021, on charges of engaging in and promoting gay activities in Uganda, although he denied being a member of the gay community, alleging he is only a friend to some members of the group.

Sources reported that Sonko and others still at large have links with foreign gay organizations from the United States of America and Europe that facilitate them to recruit and indoctrinate Ugandan youth into the vice, whereas their acts are illegal in Uganda as per the Anti-Gay Act that President Yoweri Museveni signed in 2014 and later further endorsed in 2023.

The said law prohibits and criminalizes same-sex relationships and any activities that promote the acts, stipulating severe punishments ranging from a death sentence to up to life imprisonment.

The Anti-Gay law was strongly supported by the majority of Ugandan politicians including Members of Parliament, cultural, and religious leaders, who described homosexuality as an imported immorality that would poison the society and break cultural fabric.

However, the impugned law has left the lives of several Ugandans who ascribe to the LGBT community at peril, with hundreds of them being arrested and dumped in jails around the country, while many have fled the country for safety reasons and others like Sonko, continue to live in hiding for fear of their lives.