MH Reporter
The 27-year-old Ugandan gay man is looking for well wishers to help him resettle oversees, after fleeing the country for fear of his life.
His plea comes months after Uganda’s President Yoweri Museveni signed one of the world’s toughest anti-LGBTQ laws, including the death penalty.
Illegal in Uganda
Before this, same sex relations were illegal in Uganda, and about 30 other African countries. According to the family, their brother left the country for fear of his life, and has been moving from one country to another.
“I do not know much about homosexuality but it has always been illegal in Uganda. So, my brother has constantly been on the move..Her sister Narrates.
When the president passed the anti-LGBTQ bill, he had already moved out of the country , the sister who only identified herself as Sophy says.
Semabo Ssozi Hassan, the gay on the run, was born and raised in Kawempe, one of the five divisions in Uganda’s capital Kampala.
Discovered he was gay while in High school
Interview papers presented shows that the young man discovered he was gay while in High school after having close relationship with one of his male friends.
He has narrated to Greek immigration officials the ruthless conditions he had to live in while in his home country as a gay man.
He says he was once arrested, taken to Kawempe Police Station, assaulted by both the police officers and others in custody with him. The people behind his arrest were the family members of his lover.
My father
“My father’s friend who was a police officer at the station is the one who rescued me and helped me flee,” he says.
“Even if I go to another place in my country, I will be ashamed in my country because of the law. I am going to be ashamed by my family and the family of my lover will catch and kill me,” Hassan has disclosed to Greek officials.
According to The Guardian, more than 110 LGBTQ+ people in Uganda reported incidents including arrests, sexual violence, evictions and public undressing to advocacy group Sexual Minorities Uganda (Smug) in February 2023 alone. Transgender people were disproportionately affected, said the group.
On record
President Museveni is on record saying that Uganda will not embrace homosexuality, claiming that the west was seeking to compel other countries to “normalise” what he called “deviations”.
“The western countries should stop wasting the time of humanity by trying to impose their practices on other people,” said Museveni in a televised address to parliament on 16 March, 2023.