Ugandan ethics minister breaks up secret gay rights conference

Uganda's Minister for Ethics and Integrity Simon Lokodo broke up a secret conference of gay rights activists at the Imperial Resort Hotel in Entebbe Tuesday.

Facebook/NTV Uganda

The two-week conference was organised by Freedom and Roam Uganda, an organisation that lobbies for recognition of same-sex relationships in the country.

But it ended prematurely when Lokodo forced participants to disperse.

One of them, Julian Jesse, told RFI that those present now believe their lives are in danger, adding that if anything happens to him people will have to ask questions.

People are being harassed, Jesse said, and others have had to leave their homes and even parents are harassing them.

A private member's bill recently tabled in parliament seeks to punish what it describes as “aggravated homosexuality”.

Gays fear the law will be passed and might cause killings because the bill criminalises them.

Hotel staff had been asked by organisers not to direct anyone to the Elgon Hall in the hotel where the conference was taking place unless they had cleared the person.

The minister has also ordered the arrest of the organisation's leader, Jacqueline Kasha, but she escaped and is now on the run.