UPDATE ON UGANDA GAY-DEATH BILL

A member of parliament in Uganda says that the draconian Anti-Homosexuality Bill is likely to be made law within two months.

MP Otto Odonga, a member of the Legal and Parliamentary Affairs Committee in the country’s new parliament, told US professor and blogger Warren Throckmorton via Skype that the bill’s author, David Bahati, will re-introduce the legislation as soon as possible.

“It will be expedited this time around and passed within one, maybe two months time,” Odonga said.

He added that the current committee would be able to make use of the report supporting the bill issued by the previous committee during the last parliament.

In May, legislators failed to debate and vote on the Anti-Homosexuality Bill after that parliamentary session ran out of time and was dissolved.

Originally introduced in October 2009, the Anti-Homosexuality Bill allows for the death penalty in cases of “aggravated homosexuality” and includes various criminal penalties for anyone who fails to turn over gay people to the police or who “promotes” homosexuality.

An international petition opposing the bill was signed by over 1.6 million people. It has been condemned by numerous governments around the world, some threatening to suspend aid to Uganda if it is passed.