By Mulengera Reporters
Family and friends of Ms Karungi Janat, the 28-year-old woman who went missing in March 2024 after sustained accusations of being a promoter of homosexuality since her school days at Semulik High School in Bundibugyo district, have become even more worried after prolonged efforts to trace her whereabouts failed to bear fruit.
Security authorities trying to help intensify the hunt for her after distraught family members and friends reported her as a missing person, have reportedly established that the young woman first went missing in September 2023, after she had been accused and reported to security for being a recruiter of younger school girls into acts of gayism and lesbianism.
Knowledgeable sources among her friends say that Ms Karungi went missing after getting reports that security authorities were looking for her in order to have her charged over gay-related acts and offences, which are illegal and severely punishable under the Ugandan law.
With Uganda’s security authorities failing to come up with any helpful clues regarding Karungi’s whereabouts, her family and friends are increasingly becoming anxious while fearing for the worst. There is growing community pressure back home in Bundibugyo on the authorities to account for her whereabouts though not much progress has been made thus far.
The family members have been using the local churches and community broadcasting facilities (commonly known as the bizindalo in her home area of Mbumbai village Kanyansubi ward in Bundibugyo town council) to call on whoever has information about her whereabouts to contact the nearest police station or post to alleviate their anxiety and worries.
In Uganda, same sex relationships became risky business effective 26th May 2023 when President Museveni assented the Anti-Homosexuality Bill, which Parliament had enacted in March that same year, into law. That law has very stringent provisions seeking to sanction and punish those who engage in homosexual relationships.
Sponsored as a private member’s bill orchestrated by opposition MP Asuman Basalirwa (Bugiri Municipality), the law criminalizes and severely punishes same sex relationships.
Whereas promoters of same sex relationships face a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison upon conviction, those found guilty of aggravated homosexuality acts (such as doing it with minors, transmitting HIV Aids and being serial offenders) face death sentence. (For comments on this story, get back to us on 0705579994 [WhatsApp line], 0779411734 & 041 4674611 or email us at mulengeranews@gmail.com).
