Vivian Nabawanuka, a suspected lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer (LGBT/Q) victim went missing in September 2023. This was after a series of arrests and complaints from Parents that she was involved in same sex relationships.
It however turns out that the 27 year old was tortured by security operatives and fled the country on September 17, 2023 to a yet to be identified destination.
A source who preffered not to be named due to the sensitivity of the matter, shared that Nabawanuka, a former resident of Namavundu village who later sought for refugee in Ntinda Kampala was subjected to life threatening torture and fled for her life.
“She has landed herself into problems because of her sexual orientation. She secretly identified as a lesbian and she was often arrested, ‘’ source explains.
Available information indicates that she was arrested by Police in Gayaza on 20th May 2020 and later released on 25th May because there was no enough evidence to get her prosecuted.
War on LGBT/Q community in Uganda
Uganda’s President Yoweri Museveni signed one of the world’s toughest anti-LGBTQ laws, including the death penalty for “aggravated homosexuality”, drawing Western condemnation and risking sanctions from aid donors.
Same-sex relations were already illegal in Uganda, as in more than 30 African countries, but the new law goes further.
It stipulates capital punishment for “serial offenders” against the law and transmission of a terminal illness like HIV/AIDS through gay sex. It also decrees a 20-year sentence for “promoting” homosexuality.
In August 2021, the National Bureau for Non-Governmental Organizations indefinitely suspended 54 civil society groups without due process, further restricting the work of rights groups in the country.
In August 2014, Uganda’s Constitutional Court declared the 2013 Anti-Homosexuality Act void on procedural grounds. But Ugandan courts have yet to deem a law “discriminatory” on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity or on its merits.
