Simon Lokodo. (Screen capture via NTVUganda YouTube page)
A former Uganda government minister who championed a bill that would have imposed the death penalty upon anyone found guilty of homosexuality has died.
Former Ethics and Integrity Minister Simon Lokodo passed away at a Geneva hospital Jan. 28. The Uganda Human Rights Commission, of which Lokodo had been a member, announced his death.
“The commission will miss Hon. Fr. Simon Lokodo’s vast experience and exposure gained from working with both the legislative and the executive arms of government as well as his extensive social networks and lobbying skills,” it said in a press release.
Lokodo, 64, was previously a Catholic priest until then-Pope Benedict XVI excommunicated him in 2006.
President Yoweri Museveni in 2014 signed Uganda’s Anti-Homosexuality Act, which imposed a life sentence upon anyone found guilty of repeated same-sex sexual act. The law was known as the “Kill the Gays” bill because it once contained a death penalty provision.
Lokodo in 2019 said the Ugandan government would reintroduce the “Kill the Gays” bill. A Museveni spokesperson later denied the claim.
Consensual same-sex sexual relations are already criminalized in Uganda.
“I do not have any ill words for Lokodo,” Frank Mugisha, executive director of Sexual Minorities Uganda, a Ugandan LGBTQ rights group, told the Washington Blade on Monday in an email. “However, I can say that it’s unfortunate that he spent his time as a government official persecuting and promoting hate against marginalized communities, being extremely conservative and homophobic.”
“What is ironic is at the time of his passing he was a commissioner in our national human rights institution,” added Mugisha.
