LGBTIQ+ Ally Duma Boko to Lead Botswana as New President

Duma Boko, a human rights lawyer who’s set to become Botswana’s new president, is known for his firm support of LGBTIQ+ rights.

Boko’s coalition, the Umbrella for Democratic Change (UDC), achieved a surprising landslide victory in last week’s elections, unseating the Botswana Democratic Party after nearly 60 years in power.

In March 2019, the 54-year-old Harvard-educated lawyer shared his views on Sections 164 and 167 of Botswana’s Penal Code, which criminalised same-sex relationships.

“We will ensure that Sections 164 and 167 are decriminalised,” Boko stated in a video shared on Facebook. “That’s the argument I raised back then, and that’s the position I still hold even now.”

Boko previously represented Botswana’s LGBTIQ+ rights group, Legabibo, as well as a man who was unsuccessful in challenging Botswana’s criminalisation of homosexuality in the 2003 Kanane v The State case.

When asked if the UDC would move to decriminalise homosexuality, Boko responded in the 2019 video, “Of course… I’m a human rights activist. I have always articulated this position. It would be extremely hypocritical if I don’t take it to finality. The UDC commits itself to human rights… and this is just one aspect of a broad struggle for human rights.”

Later in 2019, a panel of Botswana High Court judges unanimously overturned the criminalisation of homosexuality, declaring Sections 164 and 167 unconstitutional.

The government appealed, but in 2021, the Court of Appeal upheld the ruling, rejecting attempts to reinstate the ban.

Court of Appeal Judge President Ian Kirby stated that the discriminatory laws had been “rendered unconstitutional by the march of time and the change of circumstances,” adding that, “At present, they serve only to stigmatise gay men unnecessarily…”

Ongoing Legislative Controversy

Although homosexuality is now legal in Botswana thanks to the courts, the government sought to pass a bill in Parliament to formally remove these laws from the statute books, a process that became mired in controversy.

Homophobic religious leaders and politicians in Botswana used the opportunity to call for a debate on the bill or a referendum on repealing these laws.

Human rights activists, however, argued that both the bill and any debate on decriminalising homosexuality were unnecessary and divisive, as the courts had already definitively invalidated the laws. In 2023, the government suspended the debate on the contentious bill.

 

* An earlier version of this article erroneously stated that Boko was part of the court case that forced the Botswana government to officially register Legabibo in 2016.