Breaking! Court maintains Anti gay law!

George Williams, 3rd April 2024

The Constitutional Court has declined to nullify the Anti-Homosexuality Act 2023. The Constitutional Court made a unanimous decision in a judgement read today Wednesday 3rd April 2024 at the Court of Appeal in Kampala.

The panel of five judges of the Court of Appeal were led by the Deputy Chief Justice of Uganda Richard Buteera.

“We decline to nullify the Anti-Homosexuality Act 2023 in its entirety neither would we grant a permanent injunction against its enforcement.” – Justice Richard Buteera

According to Richard Buteera, evidence on record is that the Anti-Homosexuality Act was enacted against the backdrop of the recruitment of children into the practice of homosexuality. That is the mischief that Section 11 of the Act seeks to address.

A number of people in court following proceedings

He also said that Section 112(b) of the Anti-Homosexuality Act aligns with Section 31 of the Uganda Communications Act and Section 13 of the Anti-Pornography Act, all of which aim to uphold societal morals by limiting the use of media to publish or broadcast offensive material.

The Constitutional Court also did not find the Anti-Homosexuality Act to infringe on the right to privacy since it does not allow unlawful entry to premises by law enforcement agencies. Issue no 9 of Right To Privacy partially succeeds.

Only a few sections of that law were nullified by the Court. These included Section 3(2) C, 9,11, 2 (d) and 14 for being inconsistent with the constitution as the same violate homosexuals right to health, privacy and right to religion.

“We are now done with the constitutional court where we secured a small partial victory but a victory nonetheless. The court struck down a few provisions of the AHA but left most of the law intact. This is very disappointing and we are going to appeal to the Supreme Court” said veteran journalist Andrew Mwenda who was one of the petitioners.