People waving Ugandan and rainbow flags take part in the Gay Pride parade in Entebbe on August 8, 2015
Isaac Kasamani / AFP / Getty Images
Ugandan police interrupted the Mr. and Miss Pride Uganda pageant at Kampala's Venom nightclub on Thursday night, detaining several well known LGBT activists.
Activists Pepe Julian Onziema and Frank Mugisha of Sexual Minorities Uganda both posted on their Twitter timelines that they were being placed under arrest at around 10:30 pm local time. Clare Byuragaba, former co-coordinator of the coalition opposing anti-LGBT legislation in Uganda and now on the staff of the human rights group Chapter 4 Uganda was also among those arrested, Chapter 4 director Nick Opiyo told BuzzFeed News.
In a message sent from the police station, Opiyo said that about 10 activists had been detained but that he had not been able to confirm an exact number from the police, who he said "nearly beat [him] up" as he tried to protest the detentions.
Ugandan police told BuzzFeed News that none of the activists were under arrest, merely detained. The activists have not, however, been granted access to their lawyers.
Most of the 200 people attending the pride event were allowed to leave the club, according to Adrian Jjuuko of the legal aid group Human Rights Awareness and Promotion Forum (HRAPF), but activists were targeted. One of HRAPF's lawyers was among those arrested, Jjuuko said, who did not want her name published.
Jjuuko said that while police have occasionally interrupted LGBT cultural events and trainings, Uganda's pride events have largely gone without interruption in the past few years — even during the height of controversy following the Constitutional Court's August 2014 nullification of a sweeping anti-LGBT law passed earlier that year. Thursday's arrests come amidst widespread allegations of police brutality against supporters of jailed opposition leader Kizza Besigye following the reelection of President Yoweri Museveni to a fifth term as president.
"I think they're also trying to cover up the criticism for police brutality that's going on the country — now they want to cover it up with a gay story," Jjuuko said.
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