KAMPALA. A community police task force operation held in the outskirts of Kampala recently left three men missing from their homes.
According to relatives of one of the men who did not want to be named because of the sensitivity of the matter, Ronald Kiyemba Buyondo disappeared the same night the gay-related operation was carried out. His alleged accomplices named as Mulungi Allan, Joseph Kintutte, Moses Kasigazi, Bably Akole remain in hiding.
Reports indicate that the men had been involved in organizing a homosexual/gay party before the police swung into action to arrest the attendees at a private house on Salaama Road, about 8km out of Kampala City.
The incident happened late last month as police officers stormed into the suspected LGBTQ+ venue, disrupting the party, which had allegedly been organized by homosexual partners.
The incident comes months after President Yoweri Museveni signed the Anti-Homosexuality Act.
The law, described as the harshest in the world, prescribes life imprisonment and death sentences for those convicted of aggravated homosexuality offences.
Eyewitnesses said during the arrest, the men were tied and thrown on to a police truck before being taken for detention.
Our sources reveal that this kind of arrest is a day to day activity by authorities who crack down and prosecute LBTQ members.
Consequences
Already the World Bank has suspended funding to the east African country over human rights abuse, including the brutal law against gays.
The US has already advised its citizens against trading with Ugandans over the same while the government of Joe Biden is in the process of suspending Uganda from a tariff-free trade arrangement with some African countries.
However, Museveni has indicated that none of these acts will convince him into recalling the unpopular law.
A resident speaking anonymously said;
“He was whisked away by the Police in an official UPF truck to a police post for further investigations. The residents were restless as they also wanted to take mob action on the suspects,” the source said.
However, when relatives made a follow-up to check where the men were being held, they were informed that he had secured police bond but was required to report to the station after two weeks.
The relatives got concerned since Buyondo was neither at home, nor in the hands of the law enforcement officers.
“We request anyone with information relating to Buyondo to help us because as a family we are worried,” said a female relative who requested not to be named.
Another near-tragic incident
At around 2am local time in January 2023, Rachael Nakamya (pictured above) and her girlfriend, Pauline Namugenyi, while residing in Mengo, were pulled out of the house by bloodthirsty residents.
The community’s claim was that the couple was having an immoral, and abominable affair, hence they were cursed and told they deserved to rot in hell.
By luck, police intervened and led the two away to Old Kampala Police Station.
Here, police became another source of trouble as they wanted to charge the couple with practicing homosexuality and take it to court.
They were only let free after allegedly paying bribes to police.
Meanwhile, the house, that Rachael shared with his husband but would occasionally, according to sources bring in Pauline in the absence of the husband, was ransacked and everything was stolen.
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