Police have surrounded Essella Country Hotel in Namugongo, Wakiso district, in what Ethics Minister Simon Lokodo described as an operation to break up an illegal assembly organised by gay activists.
The police personnel including detectives and members of the anti-terrorism among others, is commanded Kiira District Police Commander, Samuel Mission.
Workshop participants at the hotel have been ordered to stay inside the premises as the entrance was sealed off.
When news reporters arrived at about 1:30pm, participants started dispersing one by one, and only about six of them still remained at the time of filing this report.
One of the workshop trainers, Njoroge Njenga, a senior programme officer at Freedom House Africa Chapter, told URN that they were in a human rights workshop which attracted participants from five countries. Njenga described their work at the hotel as a three-day training on how to gather facts and evidence of human rights abuses in Uganda and the region that can be used in future.
But when journalists approached them, they locked the door to the workshop room and two men stood guard at the door and blocked journalists from accessing the venue. One of the men wore a tag bearing the name Neil Blazevic. He told the reporters that they were trespassing.
Njenga said he was not aware their gathering was illegal, adding that it would be unfortunate if any of their participants were arrested for participating in a human rights workshop. He further noted that it would be an infringement on their rights.
One of the known gay activists in Uganda, Julian Pepe Onziema, programmes coordinator Sexual Minority Uganda—SMUG, told URN that she came to the workshop in her personal capacity to learn about human rights and how to defend her community, SMUG, from violence, stigma and abuses. She said they are not promoting gay rights but they want to access information. She notes that she is not afraid of arrest and advises Minister Lokodo to instead focus on more pressing needs such as corruption.
Onziema describes Lokodo as an idle man who has no job to do in his ministry.
Earlier, Lokodo, a former catholic priest and now MP for Dodoth West in Kaabong district, said that he had ordered police to arrest participants at the workshop, including seven from Kenya, five Rwandans, three from Tanzania, two Zanzibari nationals, and three Ugandans. He said their meeting is against the laws of Uganda.
The minister is currently meeting President Museveni in a special NRM party caucus.
