Suspected lesbian couple further remanded in Jinja
Parents demonstrate at PMM Girls School in Jinja District last week. They accused the deputy head teacher of aiding lesbian activities at the institution. PHOTOs/BY TAUSI NAKATO
What you need to know:
- On March 13, Parliament started hearing views from different stakeholders about the 2023 Anti-Homosexuality Bill.
Jinja Grade One Magistrate Agnes Musiime has further remanded a suspected lesbian deputy head teacher of PMM Girls’ School in Jinja City and her alleged lover to Kirinya Prison until March 28.
Deputy head teacher Lydia Mukodha and Martha Naigaga were arrested after parents stormed the school on March 3, accusing the school leader of promoting lesbianism among students. The parents were, however, blocked by police from accessing the school premises.
The pair was first arraigned in court on March 6 where Grade One Magistrate Yafesi Ochieng charged them with gross indecency and procurement of gross indecency, before remanding them until March 14.
On Tuesday, Ms Mukodha appeared in court clad in a blue floral dress while her alleged 30-year-old partner wore a red dress and scarf.
Ms Mukodha was represented by Ms Hellen Nabunya, whom the trial magistrate barred from making any submission because she lacked a practicing license.
“You can’t appear before me without a practicing license. I have to first look at it (and) will not entertain your application. I have adjourned the case to March 28,’’ she ruled.
However, Ms Nabunya said: “I applied for my practicing license but I am yet to receive it.’’
During proceedings, state prosecutor Florence Kataike acknowledged the presence of the PMM Girls’ School Grace Akwango and other staff members who she said are key witnesses in the case.
Ugandan anti-gay activist Pastor Martin Ssempa who was also at court urged “protection against industrial recruitment of children into sodomy”.
He said: “The deputy head teacher has authority and my worry is that she used that authority to recruit our children into sodomy. Therefore, we want police to investigate what she has been doing in school.”
Mr Joseph Bateganya, the chairperson of Jrop Village, Walukuba Ward in Jinja South City Division, where Ms Mukodha resides, asked the Ministry of Education and Sports to revoke her license.
“When I told her to register her particulars with me as the chairperson, she declined. But when I visited her home, I found a lady whom she was treating as a wife, while she referred to herself as Mr Ogwang,’’ Mr Bateganya claimed.
The developments in Jinja come barely two days after Uganda’s parliament March 13 started hearing views from different stakeholders about the Anti-Homosexuality Bill, 2023 which will criminalize same-sex activities.
