NAIROBI, Feb 24 (Reuters) – Police in Uganda said on Tuesday they had arrested two young women they accuse of involvement in same-sex acts after they were seen “openly kissing” in violation of the country’s stringent anti-homosexuality law.
The East African country enacted the Anti-Homosexuality Act in 2023, defying pressure from Western governments as well as local and international rights groups.
The two women, a 22-year-old entertainer and a 21-year-old unemployed colleague, were arrested on February 18 in Arua city in the country’s northwest, police said in a statement.
Both women were “involved in queer and unusual acts believed to be sexual in nature, besides being allegedly seen openly kissing … in broad daylight,” the statement added, saying the alleged offences began last year.
Widely seen as one of the world’s harshest laws targeting the LGBT community, it carries a sentence of life in prison for same-sex intercourse and imposes the death penalty in cases deemed “aggravated”.
The aggravated category includes repeat offences, gay sex that transmits terminal illness, or same-sex intercourse with a minor, an elderly person or a person with disabilities.
Earlier this month a Ugandan court dropped a case against the first man in the country to be charged with aggravated homosexuality after finding that the accused was of unsound mind due to prolonged detention on remand.
(Editing by George Obulutsa and Alison Williams)
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