Uganda’s pro-LGBTQI+ rights legislator loses parliamentary seat
Fox Odoi-Oywelowo fought against Uganda’s Anti-Homosexuality Act
LGBTQI+ rights ally Fox Odoi-Oywelowo lost his seat in the Ugandan parliament during national elections Jan 15. Oywelowo represented West Budama North East in the Tororo district in parliament.
Odoi-Oywelowo was at the forefront of the campaign that resulted in the annulment of the 2014 Anti-Homosexuality Act, which had been dubbed the ‘kill the gays bill’ because of its draconian nature.
While prominent politicians in Uganda have accused Western countries of imposing LGBTQ+ rights on African countries, Odoi-Oywelowo, a longtime member of Uganda’s ruling party and a former senior legal counsel to President Yoweri Museveni, hit back at his fellow lawmakers for ‘scapegoating minorities’ and spreading misinformation for political gain.
Odoi-Oywelowo was first elected in parliament in 2011, representing the West Budama North constituency. In 2016, he lost his bid to return in the 10th Parliament but he returned in the 11th parliament in 2021 as the MP for West Budama North East, a constituency that was curved out of West Budama North constituency in 2020. In June 2021, he took over leadership of parliament’s human rights committee.
Odoi-Oywelowo also advocated for the abolition of the death penalty in Uganda and sought the permission of parliament to introduce a private member’s bill for this purpose. He also advocated for the legalization of abortion and the introduction of safe abortion clinics as the only practical way to save the lives of thousands of mothers lost to unsafe abortion practices.
“In 2014, I played a small part in making sure that anti-LGBTQI forces in Uganda do not succeed in writing their hate into law: I was one of the petitioners in the case that successfully overturned the infamous anti-gay law. Back then, we had the entire political system – every single legislator, both from the government and the opposition, save I and one other – against us. But with an independent and capable judiciary, the Act was annulled. The government chose not to appeal,” Odoi-Oywelowo wrote in an opinion piece published by Al Jazeera in June 2021.
“Will Uganda pass another law criminalizing homosexuality in the future? If it does, we will contest it again, fight it again, and overturn it again… But being gay is still not socially acceptable in the country – nor, in reality, is it anywhere in Africa. And the LGBTQI fight for rights will not be truly over until it is.”
About a year later, the Anti-Homosexuality Bill 2023 was introduced in parliament and Odoi-Oywelowo fought and voted against it and signed the minority report opposing it. But these efforts were not enough to overturn the vote. More than 300 legislators voted in favour and AHA 2023 was enacted.
But in the aftermath, Odoi-Oywelowo noted that there appeared to be a large, quiet opposition to the bill.
“Parliament had over 500 voting members today, including those who attended via Zoom, but more than 100 members abstained from the vote. Ask yourself: where are the 100+ MPs? They opted not to appear in the house. They elected not to appear on Zoom. Yeah, simply because they could not support this bill. They preferred to opt out,” Odoi-Oywelowo said after the parliamentary vote on AHA 2023.
In an interview with Open Democracy in 2023, Odoi-Oywelowo admitted that the pro-rights fraternity had lowered its guard.
“Last year, I was told that those Pentecostal communities spent well over $26m in East Africa to – again – promote this anti-homosexuality law. We tried to fight it politically. At one point, we were convinced we had won the battle until it hit us this month. They have never gone to sleep. Also, we lowered our guards and were not very aggressively following the money,” he said.
He however noted that human rights advocates in Uganda have learnt their lessons and are ramping up education among the local population.
“I hope this is the last cycle – if we get the law struck down, they may give up. I think we also rested on our laurels after 2016 and thought the battle was won and so was the war. And unfortunately, that wasn’t the case. We need to, as human rights activists in this country, build a critical mass of people who understand LGBTIQ+ rights. Of course, now ‘promotion’ of homosexuality has been outlawed. This 2023 law should be observed more in breach than in observance. Now we need to ramp up education among the local population,” he said.
When the bill became law, Odoi-Oywelowo teamed up with other human rights and challenged the AHA in the constitutional court.
In its ruling, the constitutional court ruling struck down a few sections of the law but upheld the rest, prompting him and 21 others to file a petition in the supreme court seeking the nullification of the AHA. The supreme court is yet to issue its ruling on the case.
Unlike the 2014 Anti-LGBTQI+ law which the constitutional court declared null and void because it was passed without the requisite quorum in parliament, Odoi-Oywelowo says their first line of attack against AHA 2023 was unconstitutionality.
“But also, we need to interrogate the limitations that parliament intends to impose on people’s rights. Are they demonstrably justifiable in a free and democratic society? I think it’s high time we had that discussion. But we should have that discussion on the merits, and let the courts pronounce themselves” Odoi-Oywelowo told Open Democracy.
Ugandan voters also rejected three prominent anti-LGBT lawmakers in the January elections, though the ruling party maintained its grip on power.
