LGBTQ+ Ugandans flee homeland over harsh anti-gay law

DW (English)

Fearing imprisonment and abuse in their homeland, some queer Ugandans have fled to neighboring Kenya where they hope to live in safety. It's been a year since Uganda enacted one of the world's harshest anti-LGBTQ+ laws.

Transcript

00:00 Sula Mweje is a Ugandan who's been living in Kenya since 2016.

00:06 He was forced to leave his home because he's queer.

00:10 Life in Kampala proved unbearable for him after the country's parliament passed a law

00:14 that increased the penalties for some forms of consensual same-sex acts.

00:20 Even his family turned on him.

00:23 I was brutally beaten by my uncle, mobilising people, saying I'm a disgrace.

00:32 I remember I woke up on a hospital bed and from there I was like, Uganda is not home

00:41 and it's not safe.

00:43 Since relocating to Kenya, Sula has made a life for himself here.

00:47 He works with an organisation that helps create safe spaces for other displaced LGBTQ persons

00:52 in the country.

00:53 Currently, nine people, most of them from Uganda, live in the safe house with him.

00:58 Sula tells me Kenya is their only home now, a reality that's still difficult to accept

01:04 even after eight years.

01:05 No, Uganda is not home.

01:09 And it really pains me that something like somewhere where I am from, I don't regard

01:18 it as home anymore.

01:19 I mean, with grace, I hope people at home get to, I mean, everyone gets to feel safe

01:30 at home.

01:36 Despite feeling more comfortable here, Sula and his friends still have to fear for their

01:40 lives.

01:41 Since he's been in Kenya, Sula has actually had to move houses four times, fearing violence

01:47 and harassment.

01:48 He actually tells me that this week he was attacked on a motorcycle taxi just for being

01:53 queer.

01:54 Now, Kenya, like Uganda, also criminalises homosexuality, but Sula says he feels much

02:00 safer here.

02:02 I would be conscious of using the word safe.

02:05 Poe Kimani is a lawyer working with the queer community.

02:09 If you feel that your life is at risk, you run to where you think you're safe, but there

02:14 is no conviction or guarantee of safety.

02:17 The minute you step on Kenyan soil, you're still governed by the law, the sodomy clause

02:22 in our penal code.

02:24 You're still governed by the same policemen and the same communities that harbour and

02:29 internalise fear and hatred for homosexuals.

02:32 At the safe house, Champagne, the latest arrival, agrees to speak to us.

02:37 The transgender woman finally made it to Kenya through support from a donor.

02:41 She tells me a lot of her queer friends are still experiencing abuse in Uganda, abuse

02:45 similar to what she suffered at the hands of her family.

02:48 Even my mother told me, "If they arrest you, you're going directly to prison.

02:53 You're going to die.

02:55 They're going to kill you from there."

02:57 Even my biological brother, "If you get sick, just request for an injection which just kills

03:03 you, just take you to burial just like that."

03:06 Eventually, Champagne hopes to move to a country that does not criminalise sexuality or sexual

03:12 orientation.

03:13 For now, though, she remains under the care of Sula, who says he is committed to working

03:18 in Kenya for the displaced in his community.

03:20 In the safe house, he shows me a gallery of queer people from all over the world, a reminder

03:26 that they are not alone.

03:28 and country.

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