Uganda: Eight arrested on homosexuality charges denied bail

As Uganda cracks down on the LGBTIQ+ community, police in the city of Jinja have arrested six men and two women on homosexuality charges in two separate cases.

On Monday, six men arrested in connection with a gay sex video that was spread on social media were denied bail by a court in the south-eastern Ugandan city.

According to local media, the video is 17 seconds long and four of the men are said to be in it. It’s not clear how the video came to be posted on social media.

The men – all in their twenties – were arrested on 17 March and have been charged with indecency and procuring gross indecency.

Police allege that the group were found with 192 sachets of lubricants as well as shirts and other items with LGBTIQ “logos” and the rainbow flag.

The Monitor reported that the prosecution is claiming that the men are “part of a sexual network grooming young boys into acts of sodomy and recruiting male adults into gay practices”.

The state bizarrely further alleges they “were recording pornographic and sex videos and streaming live sessions, which they submitted to donors for funding”.

Parents claimed the deputy head teacher was “recruiting students into lesbianism”.

The men were denied bail because the magistrate felt they would be in danger from the community if released. They will remain in custody and will next appear in court on 10 May.

Two women were earlier also arrested in Jinja in connection with alleged same-sex intimacy.

On 3 March, police arrested the deputy head teacher of the PMM Girls’ School and her alleged partner.

This was after parents stormed the school claiming the teacher was “promoting lesbianism” among the students.

The women have also been charged with gross indecency and procurement of gross indecency. They too remain in custody and are set to appear in court on 20 April.

Uganda’s LGBTIQ+ community is on tenterhooks as it awaits news about President Yoweri Museveni’s pending decision to either sign or reject the draconian Anti-Homosexuality Bill that was passed by the Ugandan Parliament last month.

If made law, the bill will extend the severity of punishments for homosexual acts in the country, which already include life in prison.