KAMPALA, Uganda: A young woman has been living in hiding for two years after members of her community and some relatives learned of her same-s3x relations. Not only has the community since been vowing to harm the gorgeous Kautah Kyomuhendo on sight because of her sexual orientation, but also her community denounced her for allegedly inviting blasphemy upon them.
This, not to mention the revived hunt for Kyomuhendo by police and security organs to answer charges of molesting and recruiting fellow girls into the lesbian fraternity. “She had lived in denial for long until around November when we started recording complaints against her,” a detective privy with the matter at Kalisizo police station offered.
All hell broke loose when several reports on her recruitments were recorded against her in Masaka, Rakai and surrounding areas. Members of the community and my family got up in arms. They were angry with her for bringing shame to the communities and family.
They told her to give up the sacrilegious nature and quickly find a man to marry her off but she wasn’t forthcoming. As she was running away from community members, police swung into action and she was declared a wanted person over a string of sodomy vices. As the lockdown ease set in, police resumed the search for her but she is reported to have sneaked into hiding on or around 17th November 2018.
“She went into hiding on or around November 17th 2018. She had become a persona-non-grater in the area and police was on her tail all the time,” her friend, a one Hadijah Nakazibwe revealed to us. She reportedly stayed with people of her kind in several places until around May 2019 when she managed to find a Good Samaritan who helped her escape to her current hideout.
The Uganda law criminalizes sex between people of the same gender. The Ugandan parliament tried, in the past, to pass a law legalizing the vice but the country’s Constitutional Court struck it down. The country’s President Yoweri Museveni later swore that it will only see the light of the day over his dead body. He has actually, since signed a stringent law to punish homosexuals.
The country’s cultures and norms also outlaw homosexuality. In fact, those who engage in such sex are regarded as outcasts fit to be banished from society. This would not be a first for Uganda. Earlier, one of Uganda’s female musicians, Keko, was forced to escape from Uganda after receiving reports that the authorities were planning to prosecute her for being a lesbian.
Author Profile
- Amon Baita is a Kampala based journalist, Media Marketeer and Public Relations Consultant
