{"id":70983,"date":"2023-11-29T08:26:38","date_gmt":"2023-11-29T05:26:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.kfm.co.ug\/?p=70983"},"modified":"2023-11-29T08:26:38","modified_gmt":"2023-11-29T05:26:38","slug":"court-sets-date-to-hear-petition-against-anti-gay-law","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.kfm.dembefm.ug\/staging_h\/court-sets-date-to-hear-petition-against-anti-gay-law\/","title":{"rendered":"Court sets date to hear petition against anti-gay law"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Juliet Kigongo<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Constitutional Court <\/span>has set December 11 to set issues to de<\/span>termine four petitions challenging the<\/span>
legality of the Anti-Homosexuality Law <\/span>that was enacted in May 2023. <\/span>The court set the date after the peti<\/span>tioners agreed to consolidate all four <\/span>petitions and 19 applications that <\/span>were filed by different individuals and <\/span>groups.<\/span><\/p>\n

The petitioners include West Budama <\/span>North East MP Fox Odoi, Uganda\u2019s dep<\/span>uty High Commissioner to South Afri<\/span>ca Kintu Nyango, veteran journalist An<\/span>drew Mwenda,Makerere University Law <\/span>professors Sylvia Tamale and Busingye <\/span>Kabumba, and several civil society or<\/span>ganisations.<\/span><\/p>\n

Sitting as a single judge of the Consti<\/span>tutional Court yesterday, Justice Geof<\/span>frey Kiryabwire agreed with the Attor<\/span>ney General\u2019s submission to have all the <\/span>petitions consolidated.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIf we are to handle one by one, we <\/span>shall finish in 2026. We need to bring <\/span>the petition for trial as quickly as possi<\/span>ble. I want to see cooperation. You are all <\/span>targeting the same law and I do not see <\/span>why there are four petitions.I find it nec<\/span>essary to see the parties and see if they <\/span>are interested in the matter,\u201d Justice Kir<\/span>yabwire held.<\/span><\/p>\n

Mr Odoi, a former legal counsel to <\/span>President Museveni, told court that they <\/span>will go with the court\u2019s guidance togeth<\/span>er with other petitioners to have the <\/span>matter consolidated.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cBasing on the court\u2019s direction and <\/span>on the consent of parties, all petitions <\/span>should be consolidated and parties <\/span>should file the consent by today (yes<\/span>terday). The parties have also commit<\/span>ted themselves not to make any amend<\/span>ments in the four petitions during tri<\/span>al or hearing,\u201d Justice Kiryabwire ob<\/span>served.<\/span><\/p>\n

However, the court held that before <\/span>the hearing of the main petition, it will <\/span>have to first deal with an application by <\/span>Born-again Pastor Martin Ssempa who <\/span>wants to join the Attorney General to de<\/span>fend the Anti-Homosexuality Law.<\/span><\/p>\n

Among some of the grounds for the <\/span>petition, the complainants contend <\/span>that the Anti-Homosexuality Act, 2023 <\/span>alters a 2014 Constitutional Court deci<\/span>sion that nullified a similar law and it is, <\/span>therefore, inconsistent with Article 92 of <\/span>the Constitution.<\/span><\/p>\n

The petitioners claimed the Act was <\/span>passed within six days instead of the 45-<\/span>day period provided for by the rules of <\/span>Parliament. <\/span>They further allege that Parliament <\/span>enacted the controversial law on May 2 <\/span>without meaningful and adequate pub<\/span>lic participation, which is inconsistent <\/span>and in contravention of Articles 1, 2, 8A, <\/span>20, 36, 38, 79 and Objective 11(1) of the <\/span>National Objectives and Directive Princi<\/span>ples of State Policy of the Constitution. <\/span>sult of frustration caused by the school <\/span>administration.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Juliet Kigongo The Constitutional Court has set December 11 to set issues to determine four petitions challenging thelegality of the Anti-Homosexuality Law that was enacted in May 2023. The court set the date after the petitioners agreed to consolidate all four petitions and 19 applications that were filed by different individuals and groups. The petitioners include West Budama North East MP Fox Odoi, Uganda\u2019s deputy High Commissioner to South Africa Kintu Nyango, veteran journalist Andrew Mwenda,Makerere University Law professors Sylvia Tamale and Busingye Kabumba, and several civil society organisations. Sitting as a single judge of the Constitutional Court yesterday, Justice Geoffrey Kiryabwire agreed with the Attorney General\u2019s submission to have all the petitions consolidated. \u201cIf we are to handle […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":37,"featured_media":58573,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"episode_type":"","audio_file":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","filesize_raw":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":{"source_name":"","source_url":"","via_name":"","via_url":"","override_template":"0","override":[{"template":"1","single_blog_custom":"","parallax":"1","fullscreen":"1","layout":"right-sidebar","sidebar":"default-sidebar","second_sidebar":"default-sidebar","sticky_sidebar":"1","share_position":"top","share_float_style":"share-monocrhome","show_share_counter":"1","show_view_counter":"1","show_featured":"1","show_post_meta":"1","show_post_author":"1","show_post_author_image":"1","show_post_date":"1","post_date_format":"default","post_date_format_custom":"Y\/m\/d","show_post_category":"1","show_post_reading_time":"0","post_reading_time_wpm":"300","show_zoom_button":"0","zoom_button_out_step":"2","zoom_button_in_step":"3","show_post_tag":"1","show_prev_next_post":"1","show_popup_post":"1","number_popup_post":"1","show_author_box":"0","show_post_related":"0","show_inline_post_related":"0"}],"override_image_size":"0","image_override":[{"single_post_thumbnail_size":"crop-500","single_post_gallery_size":"crop-500"}],"trending_post":"0","trending_post_position":"meta","trending_post_label":"Trending","sponsored_post":"0","sponsored_post_label":"Sponsored by","sponsored_post_name":"","sponsored_post_url":"","sponsored_post_logo_enable":"0","sponsored_post_logo":"","sponsored_post_desc":"","disable_ad":"0"},"jnews_primary_category":{"id":"","hide":""},"jnews_social_meta":{"fb_title":"","fb_description":"","fb_image":"","twitter_title":"","twitter_description":"","twitter_image":""},"jnews_override_counter":{"override_view_counter":"0","view_counter_number":"0","override_share_counter":"0","share_counter_number":"0","override_like_counter":"0","like_counter_number":"0","override_dislike_counter":"0","dislike_counter_number":"0"},"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[1775],"class_list":["post-70983","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-anti-homosexuality-act"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kfm.dembefm.ug\/staging_h\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70983"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kfm.dembefm.ug\/staging_h\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kfm.dembefm.ug\/staging_h\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kfm.dembefm.ug\/staging_h\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/37"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kfm.dembefm.ug\/staging_h\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=70983"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.kfm.dembefm.ug\/staging_h\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70983\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kfm.dembefm.ug\/staging_h\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/58573"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kfm.dembefm.ug\/staging_h\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=70983"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kfm.dembefm.ug\/staging_h\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=70983"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kfm.dembefm.ug\/staging_h\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=70983"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}