By our Reporter
Ever since the signing of the Anti-Homosexuality Act, 2023 by president Museveni on 26 May 2023, many LGBTQ youths who were already living in fear have had their safety further affected with fear of life imprisonment. Furthermore, even organizations that used to provide protection to these youths are under fear because this is considered as promotion (including normalization) of homosexuality which is punishable by imprisonment for up to 20 years and fines https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-Homosexuality_Act,_2023.
‘’When the bill was read for a third time and then sent to President Museveni for assent on 21 March, we realized how bad the situation is for us providing services for the LGBTQ community’’ says Denis Muganga one of the volunteers working for a top NGO that was providing health, legal and protection shelters’ services to the LGBTQ community.
‘’The situation got worse when our organization’s headquarters were raided by security personnel having been listed us among the top promotors of homosexuality during which raid, documents and computers were confiscated which put the lives of us the staff and beneficiaries at risk since most of these documents identifying data’’ Denis continues to narrate.
“With this bill, we decided to stop our operations in our usual head office and then scaled down to a one room office that is hidden in one of the residential areas within Kampala which has negatively affected access to health and social protection services to the many LGBTQ youths’’ narrates Habibu Byamukama one of the Programme Officers who further reported that they are now in fear of being tracked down and arrested/ harmed by the community.
‘’Our executive director was kidnapped from his home and warned to stop promoting homosexuality or else he will be killed but I cannot sleep without doing the little I can to ensure that the LGBTQ community gets the needed social and health services’’ Habibu Byamukama further narrated.
The stigma and discrimination associated with the passage of the act has already led to reduced access to prevention as well as treatment services yet trust, confidentiality and stigma-free engagement are essential for anyone seeking health care. LGBTQ people in Uganda increasingly fear for their safety and security, and people are being discouraged from seeking vital health services for fear of attack, punishment and further marginalization. Several arrests have been done including the incident on 17th April when a court in the eastern town of Jinja denied bail to six people working for healthcare organizations who had been charged with “forming part of a criminal sexual network” yet they were providing health and counselling services to LGBTQ community.
‘’My father being within the security circles, the person who led the raid at our offices was able to identify my details since my HR file was there and one of the research I had worked on about LGBTQ community in Uganda had been accepted for a presentation at the May 2023 World Public Health Congress and the details had been pinned at our research corner’’ Denis Muganga continues to narrate. Denis further said that he and the other co-researchers that included Nabbuye Rehemah, Andrew Muhairwe Mataze and Nanyonjo Genevieve Gloria are currently in hiding for their own safety.
“Making it worse, the conference published our paper online which further put our names out there’’ Rehemah Nabbuye narrates.
“My family and the village kicked me out and were hunting me down until I joined this organization that has been helping me out with social and financial protection but now with all what is happening in Uganda, the organization cannot support me anymore and I am extremely depressed and scared for my life’’ narrated Andrew Muhairwe Mataze
“My boyfriend has helped with funds to get accommodation and visa applications’’. ‘’I have tried to apply to two countries for visas to run for my own safety but I have been denied and now I am just on the run for my life because I know my father will one day hunt me down and kill me to protect his name in the military and the clan so I just wish I could leave Uganda to a safer country or just access plastic surgery to change my face’’ Denis sadly narrated.
