Uganda’s President Yoweri Museveni has rejected the controversial anti-homosexuality bill.
Reuters reported that President Museveni refused to sign the bill that imposes the death penalty for homosexuality, requesting that it be returned to parliament to make it even stronger.
The President’s decision was announced Thursday night (April 20), following a meeting with the National Resistance Movement party at the presidential palace.
Chief whip Denis Hamson Obua said the President had agreed in principle to sign the bill into law.
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“Before that is done we also agree that the bill will be returned in order to facilitate the reinforcement and the strengthening of some provisions in line with our best practices,” he told a news conference after the meeting, as per the outlet.
Presidential spokesman Sandor Walusimbi said the Ugandan leader also wanted to introduce rehabilitation to ‘persons who have in the past been engaged in homosexuality’.
“H.E @KagutaMuseveni this afternoon met with the @NRMOnline caucus members of parliament to debate the anti- Homosexuality bill that was passed by parliament,” he tweeted.
“The President told the members that he had no objections to the punishments but on the issue of rehabilitation of the persons who have in the past been engaged in homosexuality but would like to live normal lives again.
“It was agreed that the bill goes back to parliament for the issues of rehabilitation to be looked at before he can sign it into law.”
Last month, only two of the 389 legislators voted against the controversial anti-homosexuality bill.
The proposed legislation would see homosexuals punished with death if they're caught in a sexual act.
The bill also criminalizes those who 'recruit, promote and fund' same-sex 'activities', which lawmakers say clash with the views and beliefs of the religious East African nation.
“A person who commits the offense of aggravated homosexuality and is liable, on conviction to suffer death,” reads the bill, as per The Guardian.
However, the bill has come under heavy scrutiny by human rights experts.
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk called the draconian new legislation ‘deeply troubling’.
“If signed into law by the President, it will render lesbian, gay and bisexual people in Uganda criminals simply for existing, for being who they are. It could provide carte blanche for the systematic violation of nearly all of their human rights and serve to incite people against each other,” he said in a statement.
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Charisa Bossinakis