Uganda jails play producer, plans to deport him

Colin Stewart is a 45-year journalism veteran. He is the…

David Cecil (Photo courtesy of Radio Netherlands Worldwide)

Ugandan authorities said today that they plan to deport a British man who was charged last year with producing a play about Uganda and the issue of homosexuality.

Charges against David Cecil, 35, were dropped last year, but now Reuters reports that Uganda’s director for immigration, Godfrey Sasagah, says “the process of removing him from the country is on.”

He was reportedly imprisoned while the deportation proceedings got under way.

“He’s going to be removed from the country … this was a decision that was taken by the minister (of internal affairs) … and we have prepared the relevant papers.”

Reuters reported:

Fridah Mutesi, one of Cecil’s lawyers and a gay rights activist, told Reuters she would file an appeal against deportation in the high court this week. Mutesi said Ugandan officials had not allowed the lawyers to see the grounds for the deportation. …

Florence Kebirungi, Cecil’s partner, said he was arrested at her business premises in the capital, Kampala, on Wednesday, and that immigration officers have told her to book him a ticket out of the country.

She said Cecil was being held in a Kampala prison that wasn’t allowing visitors over the weekend, and that his phone has been switched off.
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Cecil had planned to stay in Kampala, where he helps Kebirungi run a cultural centre that stages plays and concerts.

He had applied for a work permit which was being processed, and had planned to take the contested play, “The River and the Mountain,” on tour including to Kenya, South Africa and Washington, Kebirungi said.

Uganda’s commissioner for immigration and legal services, Josephine Ekwang, said the country’s immigration act allows the deportation of any foreigner “declared by the government as an undesirable immigrant.”