Why Museveni is yet to to sign Uganda’s anti-LGBTQ bill into law
Uganda President Yoweri Museveni has refused to sign into law the anti-LGBTQ bill recently passed in Parliament.
In its stead, the Head of State has requested the bill be returned to Parliament for further deliberations and possible amendment.
The bill, among others, imposes the death penalty on homosexuals.
Museveni’s decision was announced on April 20, 2023, after a meeting of parliamentarians in the ruling National Resistance Movement (NRM) party.
Most NRM MPs supported the bill which called for harsh penalties for anyone who engages in same-sex activity.
The meeting resolved to return the bill to the national assembly ‘with proposals for its improvement’, a statement said.
A spokesman for the presidency said Museveni was not opposed to the punishments proposed in the bill, but wanted parliamentarians to look into ‘the issue of rehabilitation’.
“[Museveni] told the members that he had no objections to the punishments but on the issue of rehabilitation of the persons who have in the past been engaged in homosexuality but would like to live normal lives again,” spokesman Sandor Walusimbi said on Twitter.
Museveni has 30 days within which to either sign the infamous legislation into law, return it to parliament for revisions, or veto it and inform the Speaker of Parliament. It may, however, pass into law without the president’s assent if he returns it to parliament twice.
Homosexuality is already illegal in Uganda under a colonial-era law criminalizing sex acts ‘against the order of nature’. The punishment for that offense is life imprisonment.
The bill prescribes the death penalty for the offence of ‘aggravated homosexuality’, and life imprisonment for “homosexuality”.
Aggravated homosexuality is defined as cases of sexual relations involving people infected with HIV as well as minors and other categories of vulnerable people.
Jail terms of up to 20 years are proposed for those who advocate or promote the rights of LGBTQ people.
A suspect convicted of ‘attempted aggravated homosexuality’ can be jailed for 14 years and the offence of ‘attempted homosexuality’ is punishable by up to 10 years in jail, according to the bill.
Anti-gay sentiment in Uganda has become a topical issue in recent weeks amid press reports alleging sodomy in boarding schools, including a prestigious one for boys where a parent accused a teacher of abusing her son.
Museveni has claimed his government is attempting to resist Western efforts to ‘normalise’ what he called ‘deviations’.
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