Arrest of LGBTI leader in Uganda

Uganda police have arrested LGBTI leader Joseph Kawesi on charges of homosexual activity and “recruiting youth into homosexuality,” gay rights activists say.

Kawesi is founder of the LGBTI group Youth on Rock Foundation.

His lawyers are seeking his release on bail, Identity Kenya reported.

Under current Ugandan law, sexual intercourse (“carnal knowledge”) between two men or two women is  punishable by a life sentence.  Other “indecent practices” are punishable by prison sentences of up to seven years.

There is no Ugandan law against “recruiting youth into homosexuality,” though that provision would be added if Uganda’s proposed Anti-Homosexuality Bill is enacted. That bill, nicknamed the “Kill the Gays” bill, was loudly debated but never voted on in 2009 and 2012.