Ugandan LGBT rights activist arrested in Rwanda
A staunch Ugandan LGBT rights activist has been arrested in Kigali, Rwanda.
Kasha Jacqueline Nabagesera was arrested in Kigali’s International Airport on Friday on suspicion of “drunkenness and gross misconduct”.
The lesbian activist was flying from Entebbe airport in Uganda to meet with American filmmakers when she was arrested.
Police in the country released a statement on Twitter explaining that she had been “temporarily held at the airport over drunkenness and gross misconduct”.
Kasha, who has won Sweden’s “alternative Nobel prize” the Right Livelihood Award, was moved to an undisclosed place sparking the hashtag #RwandawhereisKasha?
Spectrum Uganda called for information on Kasha’s location on Facebook.
“We are in search of our own Kasha Jacqueline Nabagesera who was arrested yesterday to unknown police station in Kigali, Rwanda at the airport,” they wrote.
However, she has since been released and has taken to Twitter to discuss the incident.
“Home safe,” she wrote. “These cowards were not a joke. I laughed at them for fearing a small person like me.”
She added that she had “lived with a dictator for decades” and all she was “trying to do is enlighten Rwandese to avoid same mistakes”.
The lesbian activist explained that she had whiskey in her bag, and accused Rwandan police of using this as an excuse to detain her.
Kasha said that she had since been deported from the country.
On Facebook, Kasha wrote a longer explanation of the events in which she explained that the arrest was due to political motivations because she was overheard criticising Ugandan President, Paul Kagame.
The Right Livelihood Award Foundation said they would be investigating the incident: “We are looking into disturbing reports of Alternative Nobel and Uganda LGBT leader Kasha Jacqueline arrested in Rwanda last night.”
Kasha is hailed as the “founding mother” of the LGBT rights movement in Uganda, where same-sex sexual relations is still illegal.
