On Thursday, March 12, in a plenary sitting presided over by Rt. Hon. Speaker Anita Among, the Sexual Offences Bill was withdrawn by Flavia Nabagabe, the Kassanda Woman Member of Parliament, on behalf of its mover, Anna Adeke, the Soroti Woman Member of Parliament, citing that the conflicting views received during the consideration of the bill threatened to alter its intended objectives.
The Sexual Offences Bill, 2019, was introduced in 2015 by Monicah Amoding, then Kumi District Woman Representative, a year after the Anti-Homosexuality Act, 2014, had been signed into law but subsequently struck down by the Constitutional Court of Uganda on procedural grounds; the bill would later spend four years under review by the Committee on Legal and Parliamentary Affairs before returning to Parliament in February 2019 and being passed on 5 May 2021.
However, President Museveni vetoed the bill on August 18, 2021, and sent it back to parliament, indicating that the offences were already covered by the Penal Code Act and that the new provisions in the bill were redundant.
The bill had aimed to consolidate several previous laws regarding sexual offences, and introduce some provisions toward addressing sexual violence and criminalise same-sex relationships.
Honourable Adeke’s new bill (Sexual Offences Bill, 2024), re-tabled on October 14, 2024, sought to enhance the punishment of sex offenders and the protection of victims during trial. Primarily, it had also focused on the review of other sexual offences contained in the Penal Code Act and introduced new offences and new penalties, such as the transfer of information of a sexual nature to a person without their consent. A person guilty of such an offence would face five years of imprisonment, just like individuals guilty of drawing images of individuals or taking pictures or videos of people in a state of nudity.
The Sexual Offences Bill, 2024, had proposed a death sentence for aggravated rape, criminalised indecent gestures such as touching one’s sexual organs with a three-year sentence, and proposed that a similar punishment be imposed on a person who exposes their sexual organs to anyone while in public.
Contrariwise, this bill was not primarily about sexual violence, as indicated by its movers; it targeted LGBTQ individuals in Uganda, and just like the Anti-Homosexuality Act, 2023, it would be used as a weapon of mass destruction against minority Ugandans in the LGBTQ community.
While the Anti-Homosexuality Act, 2023, bites us, the LGBTQ persons, with several of our colleagues already in prison, while we navigate the already unbearable living conditions in Uganda, the Sexual Offences Bill, 2024, would only worsen the already-worse situation.
Thus, the striking down of the Sexual Offences Bill, 2024, by Honourable Adeke, is somewhat a relief to LGBTQ individuals in Uganda, who are already wrestling with the Anti-Homosexuality Act, 2023, which has led to increased homophobia in the country, and while it might come across as a paltry win, we embrace it with a smirk, as we believe that even a single step forward is essential towards our progress.
