In what could anger members of LGBTQ community, Uganda President Yoweri Museveni is determined to revisit the plan to eliminate homosexuality.
Last year, Museveni ignited an international debate when he threatened to deal with homosexuals by condemning them to death sentence.
Despite the law failing to get through due to technicality, Museveni's government is reportedly plotting to sneak a bill which will not only condemn homosexuals to death penalty, but also have their promoters punished.
“Homosexuality is not natural to Ugandans, but there has been a massive recruitment by gay people in schools, and especially among the youth, where they are promoting the falsehood that people are born like that,” Simon Lokodo, the country’s Ethics and Integrity Minister, told Reuters.
“Our current penal law is limited. It only criminalises the act. We want it made clear that anyone who is even involved in promotion and recruitment has to be criminalized. Those that do grave acts will be given the death sentence.”
Museveni's government has promised to push for the new law, which could yet again cause outcry from those subscribing to homosexuality worldwide.
“We don’t like blackmailing,” Lokodo said. “Much as we know that this is going to irritate our supporters in budget and governance, we can’t just bend our heads and bow before people who want to impose a culture which is foreign to us.”
The original “Kill the Gays” bill was passed in 2014 but later nullified on a technicality by Ugandan courts.
An original version of that law specified capital punishment as possible retribution for same-sex relations.
After backlash, it was altered to only life impronment. But even with the bill gone, those found to be in a same-sex relationship can still be sentenced to seven years in prison and those engaged in homosexual sex could potentially be sentenced to life imprisonment.
In 2017, Pride organizers cancelled their festivities "to protect" themselves, and in 2016 police raided the event, allegedly assaulting bystanders and arrestign at least 16 people.
This new bill is expected to be presented to parliament in the next few weeks and its authors hope to have it signed into law by the end of the year.