Engineer sentenced to 10 years in jail for sodomy
Muhammed Shahbaz, a sodomy convict being led by prison officers to the holding cells at Mukono Chief Magistrate’s Court on Thursday. Photo by Jesica Sabano
Mukono- The Chief Magistrate’s Court in Mukono district has sentenced a manager of a foreign investment company to 10 years in prison for sodomising his employee.
During the trial, prosecution told court that on April 20, 2013, Muhammed Shahbaz, an engineer at Abisuas Steel Industry, a Pakistani investment company, and a resident of Kawuku Village in Lugazi, in Buikwe District, sodomised an employee of the same company.
Shahbaz was charged with having carnal knowledge of the person against the order of nature contrary to the provisions of the Penal Code Act.
State Prosecutor Joan Nakitwibwa told court that on April 20, 2013, Shahbaz invited the victim to his house to discuss salary issues and promised him a better pay.
Later, Shahbaz asked him whether he could drink alcohol but the victim declined the offer. Shahbaz then decided to offer him water and doughnuts which made the victim drowsy and lost consciousness.
The victim told court that the following day, he found himself in a bush near the sugarcane plantations in Lugazi feeling a lot of abdominal pain and with a bruised and bleeding anal canal.
The victim reported the case to Lugazi Police Station. Police recovered the victim’s shoes in Shahbaz’s house.
The victim was admitted to Kawolo Hospital and later to Mulago national referral hospital, where it was confirmed he had been sodomised.
Nine prosecution witnesses testified in the trial.
The Chief Magistrate, Ms Agnes Nkonge, ruled that a case of sodomy had been proved against Shahbaz and sentenced him to 10 years in prison.
Nkonge declined to give the convict a lenient sentence as requested by his lawyers, observing that he wasted court’s time well knowing he had committed the crime.
“Given the fact that the offence is grave, he deserves no lenience and has not been remorseful,” magistrate Nkoge ruled.
Sodomy law in Uganda
The offence of sodomy became law in Uganda by virtue of Section 15(2) of the Uganda Order in Council 1902. By that Order, laws of general application subsisting in Britain automatically become law in Uganda.
Therefore, from 1902, homosexuality was a crime in Uganda carrying a sentence of life imprisonment as provided in British law. It was amended by the Penal Code Act of 1930 by altering the sentence to 14 years with hard labour.
Attempted sodomy was maintained at seven years. By Section 10 of ordinance 21 of 1955, corporal punishment was removed.
That is what the British handed to Uganda on Independence Day October 9, 1962.
