This archive report was first published on 15 October 2019.
Uganda's government has denied plans to reintroduce a bill that would impose the death penalty for gay sex, sparking international concern and criticism from human rights groups.
On Monday, a presidential spokesman said the government has no plans to introduce the legislation, which was widely reported across the world last week.
Major aid donors, including the European Union, World Bank, the United States, and the Global Fund, had expressed concerns over the plan to reintroduce the bill, which was nullified five years ago on a technicality.
Uganda's Ethics and Integrity Minister Simon Lokodo had said the government planned to re-introduce the anti-homosexuality bill in parliament within weeks to curb the spread of homosexuality in the country.
However, a spokesperson for President Yoweri Museveni said the government has no plans to introduce the legislation that would impose the death penalty for gay sex.
"There are no plans by the government to introduce a law like that," Don Wanyama, President Museveni's senior press secretary, told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.
Uganda is seen as one of the most difficult countries in Africa to be in a sexual minority, with members of the LGBT community facing prejudice in getting jobs, renting housing or seeking medical care or education.
Human rights groups have criticized Lokodo's comments, saying they would inflame homophobic attitudes further.
"This is an example of how Uganda's politicians are stoking dangerous intolerance and bias against LGBTI people," said Joan Nyanyuki, Amnesty International's director for East Africa, the Horn and the Great Lakes, in a statement.
