By Website Writer; Parliament of Uganda is set to publish the names of legislators who attended the debate and passed the Anti-Homosexuality Bill 2023 on Tuesday.
Speaker Anita Among, who said it was a critical time to define Uganda and its values, said it’s high time Ugandans know who stands for their values amidst extreme compromise.
The Parliament of Uganda passed the Anti-Homosexuality Bill 2023 after gathering majority voting from legislators of 73% from the record-breaking attendance.
The Ugandan lawmakers enacted the Anti-Homosexuality Bill, with a last-minute introduction of death as penalty for the offence of aggravated homosexuality.
A person convicted of attempted aggravated homosexuality faces 14 years in prison.
The punishment proposed in the original Bill moved by MP Asuman Basalirwa (Bugiri Municipality, Jeema) for aggravated homosexuality was 10 years’ imprisonment.
Aggravated homosexuality is defined in the enacted Act as the offence of homosexuality where the victim is below 14 years or above 75, a person living with disability or mental illness, or where a person contracts an illness with no scientific cure, or the offender is a parent, guardian or a serial offender.
Ms.Robina Rwakoojo, the chairperson of the Legal and Parliamentary Affairs Committee, which considered the Bill, said the changes in penalties were made to harmonize them with provisions in the Penal Code Act for similar offences such as defilement.
Overall, the penalties prescribed in the final version of the legislation, which awaits the President’s assent to give it effect of law, are stiffer than initial Basalirwa propositions.
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