A Pride event in Uganda has been broken up by police as at least two LGBT+ activists are arrested.
Pride Uganda tweeted that the small gathering in Kampala had been raided by police, as prominent LGBT+ activist Frank Mugisha also tweeted that he had been arrested.
The tweet from Pride read: “We have been raided by police. And they are saying our gathering is un lawful.”
An earlier tweet suggested that police had blocked in revellers at a “Mr and Miss competition” was taking place.
Posts on Twitter from local media claimed that police broke up Pride suggesting it had been an attempt for same-sex couples to marry.
Kuchu Times tweeted that: “Police claims gathering was a gay wedding”.
Patrick Corrigan, the Head of Nations & Regions at Amnesty International’s UK branch tweeted: “Two Ugandan #LGBT activists @frankmugisha & @opimva just been arrested after police break up @Prideuganda2016 event.”
Adamantly homophobic Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni remained in office for a fifth term, as he won a general election earlier this year, amid accusations of corruption.
President Museveni signed the draconian Anti-Homosexuality Bill in February 2014. The law called for repeat offenders to be sentenced to 14 years in prison and to make it a criminal offence not to report someone for being gay.
However, the country’s Constitutional Court later struck down the bill , finding that the speaker of parliament acted illegally by moving ahead with a vote on the law despite at least three lawmakers objecting to a lack of quorum.
Despite this, it still remains illegal to be gay in Uganda.
Uganda later passed a controversial new law, that could result in the closure of NGOs helping the country’s LGBT population.
The country’s parliament passed the controversial Non-Governmental Organisations (NGO) bill , in a late-night sitting.
Museveni has previously claimed that Uganda is a “better destination” for tourists than Spain , that “Uganda is so rich, we should be the ones to give aid” , and that oral sex is a Western invention that is “more terrible” than homosexuality.
This year an LGBT+ rights organisations shared photographs of men who broke into its offices and killed a security guard.
Human Rights Awareness and Promotion Forum Uganda (HRAPF) was broken into in May and a security guard was killed as its offices were ransacked.
Queer News. Straight Up.
The LGBTQ+ stories you don't want to miss, delivered to your inbox daily.