By Our Reporter
Several LGBT people and sympathizers have come out to support a prominent Ugandan Gay activist who faces imminent deportation from the UK after his unsuccessful application for asylum.
An online petition started by a one Joe Stanley describes Godfrey Kawalya as a member of several LGBTI organisations and a Pastoral Council for LGBTI Catholics Westminster. Furthermore, the petition indicates that Kawalya faces a high risk of being persecuted because of his gay rights activism and political opposition.
When we landed on this online petition, we wanted to really know who exactly Godfrey Kawalya is. A crawl through the internet particularly his Facebook page welcomes you with a smiling Kawalya clad in a colourful shirt whilst waving the Ugandan flag high and holding a placard that reads “LGBTI RIGHTS ARE HUMAN RIGHTS, ALL RIGHTS ARE UNIVERSAL”. Just besides him are more activists holding placards bearing slogans like “PROUD GAY UGANDANS”.
A scroll through Kawalya’s Facebook page vividly awashes you with several LGBT and political activism. In one of his posts on Facebook, Kawalya is quoted saying, “Lokodo is delusional and a miss-guided bigot, Indeed he is! This goes to people who share the same views as Uganda’s homophobic Minister of Ethics who claims that gay people want to rape him. LGBTI RIGHTS ARE HUMAN RIGHTS AND ALL RIGHTS ARE UNIVERSAL.”
Post after post you get to see some sort of activism but as we kept on scrolling through, something caught our attention. Kawalya and other African LGBT people boldly besieged a high-level meeting of Primates which the Archbishop of Uganda withdrew from. On his Facebook, Kawalya wrote; “Whenever a chance arises to fight for your rights, use it and don’t wait for tomorrow…it could be too late. We must understand that LGBTI Rights are Human Rights! The battle for LGBTI rights is continuous…if you don’t stand up and fight for what belongs to you, you will always be considered to be the minority. Together We Can, Yes We can…..change people’s perception towards us, the LGBTI community.”
The walking out of the “PRIMATES” meeting by the Archbishop of Uganda, Stanley Ntagali, reflects a complex, extreme and unique level of Homophobia.
In a statement released by himself on 13th January 2016 protesting the Anglican’s church’s apparent friendly position towards the LGBT community in Canterbury, Ntagali said, “Sadly, after two long days of discussions, I was concerned that the process set up for this meeting would not permit us to address the unfinished business from the 2007 Primates Meeting in Dar es Salaam.
“In accordance with the resolution of our Provincial Assembly, it was therefore necessary for me to withdraw from the meeting which I did at the end of the second day. It seemed that I was being manipulated into participating in a long meeting with the Episcopal Church USA and the Anglican Church of Canada without the necessary discipline being upheld. My conscience is at peace. The above echoes what 95% of Ugandans feel as they usually accuse the western world of dumping their unpalatable cultures onto the ‘naturally heterosexual’ and religious country.”
Prominent Pentecostal leaders such as Martin Ssempa a Ugandan-American pastor and activist, founder of the Makerere Community Church have also been openly vocal against homosexuality.
“It is usually safer here if nobody knows you are a lesbian or gay. That is how most of us have survived overtime, by camouflaging and pretending to appear ‘ordinary’ but in the case of Kawalya, I would think he has been too dangerously open and controversial to have any comfort here. His fearless and brave activism has been too pronounced for instance,” said Shivan Pavin, a local singer and one of the most openly vocal LGBT rights activists in Uganda.
Our snoops noted that Kawalya has been actively and openly involved in several LGBTI activities. He has been quoted saying, “The question is, what implication does it have on Kawalya should he be ‘extradited’ to Uganda?”
We consulted Sammy Wanda, a prominent legal Ugandan Lawyer and legal expert on this issue and this is what he had to say: “He is still a Ugandan citizen. Whether the UK office was right or wrong when deciding his application, Kawalya’s LGBT and political activities as seen in the public’s eye technically and legally renders him unwelcome here. His activities are illegal as they are interpreted as promotion of homosexuality.”
We shall be bringing you more on this controversial developing story on our site. But one thing remains clear, Kawalya is being thrown in the unknown. This unknown to many sympathizers is a journey into wilderness.