A suspected Pro-gay activist Wednesday attacked the Uganda House Building which houses the Ugandan Embassy in New York, United States and injured its occupants over the anti-homosexuality bill passed by the Ugandan Parliament, Mr Adonia Ayebare, Uganda’s envoy to the United Nations has confirmed.
The Uganda House is a few minutes walk from the United Nations headquarters.
According to Ayebare’s tweet, the individual damaged the building’s entrance door and injured the South Sudanese diplomats who are renting the office in an attack captured by CCTV Cameras, just a day after the Ugandan Parliament voted to pass the Anti-LGBTQ Bill 2023.
“Violent incident at Uganda House new york, an individual yet to be identified damaged a glass of a rear entrance door and injured a South Sudanese Diplomat (tenant), the police is on the scene, fortunately, our CCCT cameras captured the incident,” reads in part Mr Ayebare’s tweet.
Ayebare added that although it was “too early to establish the motive, the individual was reportedly angry about the Bill passed by Uganda Parliament on LGBT.”
Ayebare in another Twitter update on Thursday morning also sought to allay fears about President Museveni signing the bill into law.
“Extensive international media reports on the recently passed ”anti-homosexuality bill” by Parliament of Uganda insinuates that the bill is already law, this is misleading, until the President assents to the Bill, there is no law. SEPARATION OF POWERS,” he tweeted.
Uganda’s Parliament on Tuesday passed the Anti-Homosexuality Bill, 2023 amidst mixed reactions from several stakeholders, with death as a penalty for the offence of aggravated homosexuality.
The bill once assented to by the President would see anyone engaging in acts of homosexuality facing 20 years in jail and the death penalty for convicts of aggravated homosexuality.
Among other penalties enacted in the bill includes; Legal entities found culpable of any of the offences face a Shs1b fine and a decade-long suspension of their activities. Failure to report an attempted or acts of homosexuality is punishable by Shs100m fine or imprisonment for six months, or both.
The bill which has been described by Rights Watchdogs and Western Countries as “Tough” has attracted backlash from the international community with U.S. authorities threatening economic sanctions against Uganda.
The National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby on Wednesday said if the legislation was signed into law, Washington would “have to take a look” at imposing economic sanctions on Uganda.
The U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Wednesday the Anti-Homosexuality Act passed by the Ugandan Parliament would “undermine fundamental human rights of all Ugandans and could reverse gains in the fight against HIV/AIDS” and urged the Ugandan Government to “strongly reconsider the implementation of this legislation.”
The White House Press Secretary Jean Pierre yesterday told a press conference in Washington the U.S. had “grave concerns with the passage of the Anti-Homosexuality Bill by the Parliament of Uganda and increasing violence targeting LGBTQI+ persons.”
Homosexual acts are already illegal in the East African country but the bill seeks to go further and criminalise people on the basis of their sexual identity.
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