Court agrees to hear lesbian case
THE High Court has agreed to hear the case of two women who claim they were tortured by the Police and the LCI chairman of Kireka on allegations that they were lesbians.
By Hillary Nsambu
THE High Court has agreed to hear the case of two women who claim they were tortured by the Police and the LCI chairman of Kireka on allegations that they were lesbians.
Justice Stella Arach-Amoko yesterday overruled the Attorney General’s objection to the hearing of the case. The Attorney General had asked the court to dismiss the case, arguing that the applicants used the wrong procedure.
“The issue raised by the Attorney General is a mere technicality… The respondent is free to cross-examine the applicants as they would in an ordinary suit,†the judge said. She set September 21 for the case to start.
Both anti-gay activists and those advocating for equal rights for homosexuals were present at the court.
The first group included Pastor Martin Ssempa and his followers, while the second group consisted of young people dressed in T-shirts with rainbow-colours and stickers saying ‘Let us live in peace’.
In the case, Yvonne Oyoo, a Kenyan student of Makerere University, and Victor Juliet Mukasa, a Ugandan human rights activist, alleged that the Kireka LC1 chief and the local Police tortured, molested and treated them in a degrading manner after arresting them on allegations that they were lesbians.
The women, who are represented by Ladislaus Rwakafuzi, dragged the Attorney General to court alleging that their rights had been violated. They are seeking damages from the state.
Oyoo alleges that on July 20, 2005, the Kireka LC1 chief, accompanied by the Police, found her alone in Mukasa’s house, where she was a visitor, and arrested her.
She further alleges that she was taken to the home of the LC chief and later to the Kireka Police post, where the officer-in-charge undressed her under the pretext that he wanted to confirm that she was a woman, and sexually harassed her by fondling her breasts.
“This was not only very humiliating and degrading, but also a gross violation of my human rights,†Oyoo said in her affidavit.
THE High Court has agreed to hear the case of two women who claim they were tortured by the Police and the LCI chairman of Kireka on allegations that they were lesbians.
Justice Stella Arach-Amoko yesterday overruled the Attorney General’s objection to the hearing of the case. The Attorney General had asked the court to dismiss the case, arguing that the applicants used the wrong procedure.
“The issue raised by the Attorney General is a mere technicality… The respondent is free to cross-examine the applicants as they would in an ordinary suit,†the judge said. She set September 21 for the case to start.
Both anti-gay activists and those advocating for equal rights for homosexuals were present at the court.
The first group included Pastor Martin Ssempa and his followers, while the second group consisted of young people dressed in T-shirts with rainbow-colours and stickers saying ‘Let us live in peace’.
In the case, Yvonne Oyoo, a Kenyan student of Makerere University, and Victor Juliet Mukasa, a Ugandan human rights activist, alleged that the Kireka LC1 chief and the local Police tortured, molested and treated them in a degrading manner after arresting them on allegations that they were lesbians.
The women, who are represented by Ladislaus Rwakafuzi, dragged the Attorney General to court alleging that their rights had been violated. They are seeking damages from the state.
Oyoo alleges that on July 20, 2005, the Kireka LC1 chief, accompanied by the Police, found her alone in Mukasa’s house, where she was a visitor, and arrested her.
She further alleges that she was taken to the home of the LC chief and later to the Kireka Police post, where the officer-in-charge undressed her under the pretext that he wanted to confirm that she was a woman, and sexually harassed her by fondling her breasts.
“This was not only very humiliating and degrading, but also a gross violation of my human rights,†Oyoo said in her affidavit.