Police Breaks Up Gay Rights Meeting.

Simon Lokodo.

In Uganda, the Ethics Minister, Rt. Rev. Fr. Simon Lokodo ordered the Police to disband a meeting organised by gay groups at Esere Hotel in Najjera, an outskirt of the country's capital, Kampala.

A statement by a coalition of rights groups, including Freedom House and Amnesty International, dubbed the raid "arbitrary and an illegitimate infringement on freedom of association and assembly".

Julian Pepe Onzima the programme director and acting advocacy officer for sexual minorities in Uganda said the meeting was on monitoring, documentation and reporting of human rights abuses in Uganda and the region.

"People are shaken, there is no way anyone is going to concentrate when they are in fear, the meeting cannot go forward," he told RFI. " Every part of the hotel where there was an outlet was blocked by police so no-one could move including people of the media. Rooms were searched , people had to be evacuated from the hotel to a safer place.

Five participants were briefly detained and later released without any charges.

Well, if my opinion should be sought here, Uganda is a country towing the Nigerian line on stance with homosexuality. Homosexuality is illegal in Uganda. In 2009 Member of Parliament David Bahati tabled an anti-homosexuality bill in parliament. The bill seeks to criminalise same-sex relationships. The bill, which is currently shelved in parliament, proposes stiff penalties for homosexuals from 14 years to life in jail.

Therefore, it's not out of order, the Minister's behaviour. I believe he was acting intra vires his duties.