Ugandan court drops case against women jailed over alleged public kiss
Anti-homosexuality law still leaves arrests and custody as the penalty, five months in prison ended without a verdict
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Alesi Diana Denise, left, and Wendy Faith were arrested in February. Photograph: supplied
theguardian.com
Uganda’s president, Yoweri Museveni, signed the Anti-Homosexuality Act in 2023. Photograph: Hajarah Nalwadda/AP
theguardian.com
Two young women in north-west Uganda spent five months in prison after prosecutors said they had been seen kissing in public. According to The Guardian, Wendy Faith and Alesi Diana Denise were arrested in February in Arua City under Uganda’s anti-LGBTQ+ legal regime, then released after a chief magistrate ordered proceedings discontinued last week.
The case shows how Uganda’s Anti-Homosexuality Act—signed by President Yoweri Museveni in 2023 and carrying penalties that include life imprisonment for same-sex relationships—can punish through process even when convictions do not follow. The Guardian reports the pair faced a possible life sentence while held in a cramped cell that was originally intended for two people but was later filled beyond that. They describe poor conditions, inadequate food and lasting trauma, and say hostility began immediately: community members were “willing to beat them,” and police beat Faith “without provocation,” according to their account.
Dropping the charges did not restore normal life. The women told The Guardian they now struggle to move safely in public—especially together—because neighbours continue to threaten and harass them. That creates a practical form of social control: the law’s existence makes arrest plausible, and plausibility is enough for employers, landlords, families and local officials to treat someone as untouchable. Rights advocates cited by The Guardian say fear of prosecution continues to shape behaviour across Uganda even when cases collapse in court.
The enforcement pattern also widens the number of actors who can extract compliance. A law that criminalises private conduct turns routine encounters—street arguments, domestic disputes, landlord-tenant conflicts—into potential police matters. The Guardian’s reporting describes a chain in which public suspicion becomes police action, custody becomes punishment, and release becomes exposure to renewed intimidation. Activist Hans Senfuma told the paper that the discharge brought “relief but not safety,” pointing to the trauma of detention itself.
In Arua City, the court ended the case. The women still say they cannot walk through the streets peacefully if they are seen together.