KAMPALA, Uganda — After receiving overwhelming criticism from across the globe, Uganda’s Parliament on Friday let the time expire on a contentious anti-homosexuality bill that had threatened this East African country’s international standing.
The Anti-Homosexuality Bill sought to impose the death penalty for a number of reasons, including being a “serial offender” of the “offense of homosexuality.” The bill also called for Ugandans to alert the government to known cases of homosexual behavior within 24 hours.
Religious leaders said they had obtained more than two million signatures in support of the measure, and though it had been in legislative limbo for more than 18 months, the bill had been added to the Parliament’s agenda for debate this week, with many observers anticipating a possible vote on Friday.
Instead, a handful of lawmakers spent the day laughing and thanking their colleagues for their service and debating the political events of the day before, in which opposition demonstrations eclipsed the inauguration of President Yoweri Museveni. Then the lawmakers adjourned for the last time before the next session is seated, unless an emergency meeting is called.
The bill could be reintroduced in the next Parliament, but some lawmakers said its best chance for passage might have been in this session.
“It has not been dealt with,” Edward Ssekandi, the Parliament speaker, said of the bill’s last-minute addition to the agenda. “We can’t bring that bill for second reading, a general debate, then vote in committee. No, there is no such thing.”
Since the bill was introduced, gay-rights advocates have gone into hiding in Uganda; a vitriolic newspaper published the names and addresses of gay men and lesbians and told readers to kill them; and one prominent activist for gay rights, David Kato, was bludgeoned to death with a hammer in his neighborhood outside Kampala.
The legislation has torn at the tight-knit and vulnerable gay community in Uganda, with some saying they were paid to pose in support of the bill.
But while some officials have said that almost all of the bill’s clauses were either unconstitutional or redundant, the general spirit of the legislation — that being gay is not tolerated by the majority of Ugandans — was something lawmakers did not want to give up.
A parliamentary committee studying the bill recently endorsed the anti-homosexuality legislation, including the death penalty, as well as suggesting an amendment to criminalize same-sex weddings.
The legislation led a number of Western nations to scrutinize their relations with Uganda, and some members of Parliament said they resented a third hand guiding the bill’s destiny, arguing that the country’s sovereignty was threatened.
“There has been immense, immense pressure from outside, bordering on intimidation,” said James Buturo, a departing member of the current Parliament and Uganda’s minister of ethics.
“It means,” he said, “it waits for the next Parliament.”
Kizza Besigye has lost three elections to Yoweri Museveni Kizza Besigye and two other Ugandan opposition leaders have been arrested after calling for people to walk to work in protest at fuel price hikes.