Anti-LGBT arrests rising in Uganda, new report finds
Arrests of LGBTQ Ugandans outnumbered other violent attacks for the first time
By Joto La Jiwe
For the first time since Uganda’s Anti-Homosexuality Act (AHA) 2023 came into force, cases of homophobia-driven arrests have topped the list of human rights violations against known or suspected LGBTQI+ persons, overtaking violence and evictions, according to a report just published by the Human Rights Awareness and Promotion Forum (HRAPF).
The report, available for download here, says there was a noticeable increase in the number of arrests on homosexuality-related charges from 3 cases affecting 4 persons in November 2024 to 8 cases affecting 12 persons in December 2024. In 4 of these cases, clients were charged with homosexuality under the AHA. In 3 cases, clients were charged under pre-existing sections of Uganda’s Penal Code that prohibited gay sex and cross-dressing. In the remaining case, no charges were laid. All 8 arrests happened in Kampala.
The authors of the report described this trend as a worrying development for LGBTQ Ugandans. According to the report, the prosecutors use both the AHA and the Penal Code provisions against homosexuality as they deem fit, but the Penal Code charges seem more likely to be endorsed by the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions, showing the danger of these laws remaining on the law books alongside the AHA.
In one of the cases, HRAPF states that their client was approached on Facebook by a man with whom they started a flirtation, and later agreed to meet. When the two met, the other person came with police officers from Kabalagala Police Station in Kampala who arrested him. While he was in custody, the police officers went through his phone and found communications with the second client, whom they suspected to be the first client’s intimate partner, and tricked him into meeting them. They arrested him too and charged them both with homosexuality.
According to one former community liaison police officer in Kampala who spoke to the report authors on condition of anonymity, such arrests are driven by hate, not credible intelligence.
“We have police officers stage-managing crimes probably in order to get operations money or to be seen to be working. If we are going to waste tax payers’ money on fabricating cases under AHA, then I say to hell with AHA,” the former officer says.
In another case, a person was arrested on 20 December 2024 and detained at Kira Road police station on charges of homosexuality. The complainant in this case alleged that the arrested person had promised him money in exchange for sex and then refused to pay him.
All those arrested or and charged are out either on police bond or court bail.
The report also recorded a slight increase in the number of cases of eviction from rented property from 6 cases affecting 7 individuals in November 2024 to 7 cases affecting 8 individuals in December 2024. Six of the evictions were orchestrated by landlords and one by members of the victim’s immediate family.
In the latter case, the victim was evicted from their family home after his mother went into his bedroom and found him and his partner kissing. The mother of the client was therefore very upset and called other family members, who verbally abused the client and then informed him that he had been disowned.
In a surprising new development, reported cases of actual violence and threats of violence on the basis of real or presumed sexual orientation, gender identity or gender expression (SOGIE) in Uganda dropped dramatically from 12 cases affecting 14 persons in November 2024 to 3 cases affecting 3 individuals in December 2024.
A month-to-month comparison shows that there was a slight reduction in the overall number of cases reported in December 2024 from 47 cases in November 2024, to 45 cases in December 2024. The number of reported cases involving actions that deliberately targeted persons for negative treatment on basis of their real or presumed SOGIE reduced from 19 cases in November 2024, to 18 cases in December 2024. The number of victims affected by these violations also reduced from 28 persons in November 2024 to 23 persons in December 2024.
