Scott Mills: I want to go back to Uganda — but can’t because it’s too dangerous

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Radio 1 DJ Scott Mills has ruled out returning to Uganda in order to make a follow-up programme about the amount of violent homophobia in the country.

In 2011, Mills went to Uganda and filmed the BBC Three documentary ‘The World’s Worst Place to be Gay.’  

The programme showed Mills interviewing David Bahati, the Ugandan MP responsible for the proposed Anti-Homosexuality Bill.

When the presenter said he was gay, Bahati became enraged and the film crew fled.

Afterwards, in an interview with PinkNews.co.uk, Mills spoke of how he feared for his own safety during the assignment.

In his latest monthly column for GT (Gay Times), Mills expressed alarm at the behavior of the speaker of parliament, Rebecca Kagada, who failed at the close of 2012 to get the country’s parliament to pass the bill.

Doing so would further criminalise homosexual acts and even sanction the death penalty in certain circumstances.

Despite missing Kagada’s “Christmas” deadline, Uganda’s Parliament could easily introduce the bill for debate when it reconvenes in February.

Mills wrote: “Two years on I would actually like to go back to make another show about what the mood is like there, and how the gay people feel about what could happen to them.

“However, I’ve been told that it would be too much of a security risk. I guess I haven’t given them the best publicity.”

The DJ added: “It’s just hard to sit back and watch all this happen. Surely the West can do more?”

In December, Martin Ssempa, a Ugandan homophobic pastor stunned television viewers by using fruit and vegetables to demonstrate how he believes gay men and women have sex.