Uganda: Police release trans woman who aided a friend

Colin Stewart is a 45-year journalism veteran living in Southern…

Ugandan police have released a transgender woman whom they arrested last weekend in response to a community protest against LGBT people living in their neighborhood in Kampala.

Adrian Jjuuko, executive director of the Human Rights Awareness and Promotion Forum (HRAPF), said that attorneys arranged for Reagan’s release on May 7 from Salama Police Post. She was released on police bond.
“Technically [Reagan] spent two days in detention, for they do not count weekends, but in reality there were four days,” Jjuuko said.
That is a welcome change from the recent police practice of detaining LGBT people for longer than the constitutional limit of 48 hours in police custody on the pretext that a police investigation is under way, he said.
On May 4, Uganda’s LGBT community security team learned that police from the Salama Police Post had arrested Reagan in her hotel room in response to citizens’ complaints that a same-sex couple was staying there, said Sandra Ntebi, head of the security team.
Reagan had moved to the hotel to take care of a transgender friend who had been attacked by a mob, hospitalized and released to recover from her injuries. But by the time police arrived, Reagan’s friend had fled to Kenya, Ntebi said.
The charges against Reagan are based on complaints from anti-gay concerned citizens with no evidence to back them up, Ntebi said.
For more information on the background of the case, including mob attacks, see the article “Uganda mob seeks to oust gays; police arrest trans woman.”
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