VIDEO: Protesters urge Uganda president not to sign anti-gay bill into law
Around a hundred people gathered outside the Ugandan High Commission in the Kenyan capital Nairobi on Monday, to demonstrate against the passing of a bill by Uganda’s parliament last year which calls for life imprisonment for some homosexual acts.
READ MORE: Uganda’s president opposes tough new anti-gay bill
Members of the Kenyan gay and lesbian community wore rainbow coloured wigs and masks and chanted “Museveni, stop killing us”, in an attempt to stop the Ugandan president Yoweri Museveni from signing the bill into law.
“We have a lot of friends from Uganda seeking asylum in Kenya right now, the state of their lives right back home is just unbearable,” said Yvonne Oduor, from the Kenyan Gay and Lesbian Coalition.
“We stand together in times of trials and in times of persecution, that is why we are here today.”
Eric Gitari, director of Kenya’s National Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission, said that the anti-gay bill in Uganda, like the recent one passed in Russia, was based on lies.
READ MORE: Uganda passes tough new bill against homosexuality
“Putin should stop mincing his words, he should speak the truth. If he has heard any homosexual organisation going to Russia saying that children should be recruited, let him mention one… (This is) the same they are using in Uganda that the homosexuals are going to high schools and recruiting children, a lie.”
Small protests are being held around the globe on Tuesday in the hope of pressuring Museveni not to sign the bill, which calls for life imprisonment for some homosexual acts.
Last month Museveni voiced his opposition to the bill in a letter to the Ugandan speaker of parliament. However, if the President does not sign the bill, the Ugandan parliament can still pass it with a two thirds majority vote.
Museveni has also previously warned of serious consequences for Uganda’s foreign relations if a bill proposing severe punishment for gay people is passed.
Homosexuality is already illegal in Uganda under a colonial-era law that criminalises acts “against the order of nature.”
Museveni’s rejection of the bill comes as some African countries are toughening anti-gay laws.
In Nigeria, President Goodluck Jonathan on January 7 signed a law making it illegal for gay people to hold a meeting.
The Nigerian law criminalises gay marriage, homosexual clubs, associations and organisations, with penalties of up to 14 years in jail.
The original bill in Uganda, first introduced in 2009, proposed the death penalty for some homosexual acts.
That provision was later removed amid international pressure.
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