It seems being raped, tortured, and beaten in a Ugandan prison, is not enough for the UK to grant asylum.

Asylum seeker and Ugandan, Prossy Kakooza, 26, was with her girlfriend of 5 years, when her brother discovered her and called the police. In jail, she was raped, branded with hot meat skewers, and beaten by drunken police officers. 

A friend bribed the police, and helped her escape her home country, and she fled to the UK. On arriving in the UK, doctors were shocked by her injuries and called the police. 

Despite the evidence of attacks on her, the British Home Office has refused her claim of asylum. She has now appealed the decision, which is her last solution. If she is turned down Kakooza said she would likely be killed if she is returned to Uganda.

In the UK, Kakooza has been receiving counseling from a rape crisis centre. She says, ”I have nightmares every night and I don’t think I will ever get over what happened to me.”

“I really want stay in this country and work,” she said. “I have a degree in English Literature and I would love to be able to teach.”

Kakooza also said that she often thinks of her girlfriend who remains in prison.

“I was lucky I got out. I can’t bear to think of what is happening to her there.”

Two years ago, a similar story occurred. Elizabeth Muhwezi sought asylum in the UK, but the judge ruled that she should be sent back to Africa because “lesbians are not homosexuals” and that only gay males in Uganda face persecution. No information is available on the Internet describing Muhwezi’s fate.

From 365Gay.com:

Anti-gay attacks are commonplace in Uganda but have increased since last August when Ugandan LGBT rights groups for the first time held a public news conference to demand basic civil rights. Many of the participants wore disguises out of fear of government reprisals.

A week later supporters of a coalition of Christian and Muslim religious groups filled a downtown stadium demanding mass arrests of gays.

Last year the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission said that it had uncovered evidence that the Bush administration has funded groups in Uganda that actively promote violence and discrimination against lesbians and gay men. Among those receiving money, according to US government records, is Uganda Muslim Tabliqh, and the Makerere University Community Church.

Muslim Tabliqh youth announced a plan last year to form an ‘Anti-Gay Squad’ to fight homosexuality in Uganda. 

Sheikh Multah Bukenya, a senior cleric in the Tabliqh Organization, was quoted during prayers at Noor Mosque in Kampala as saying that his followers are “ready to act swiftly and form this squad that will wipe out all abnormal practices like homosexuality in our society.”

The country’s leading Muslim cleric, Sheikh Ramathan Shaban Mubajje, has proposed to President Yoweri Museveni that gays be rounded up and marooned on an island in Lake Victoria until they die.