A prominent Ugandan LGBTQ activist was stabbed to death on Wednesday by unidentified motorcycle riders on his way to work, police and a human rights activist said.
Steven Kabuye, 25, was wounded and left for dead in the attack, which took place on the outskirts of the capital Kampala, before being rescued by local residents, the police said. Human rights activists have previously warned of the risk of attacks on members of the LGBTQ community in Uganda after the country passed one of the world’s toughest anti-gay laws last year.
A police spokesman, Patrick Onyango, said, “According to Mr. Kabuye, two helmeted individuals on a motorcycle approached him. The passenger attacked him, aiming a knife at his neck,” said Mr. Onyango. “The assailants chased him and stabbed him in the stomach, before leaving him for dead,” he added, adding that local residents rescued him and took him to a hospital. According to the police spokesman, his prognosis is not life-threatening.
Mr. Kabuye, who works for the Coloured Voices Media Foundation, which campaigns on behalf of LGBTQ youth, told investigators at his hospital bedside that he had been receiving death threats since March 2023.
In May 2022, Uganda passed anti-gay legislation containing provisions making “aggravated homosexuality” a capital offence and punishments of up to life imprisonment for consensual same-sex relations. This law has been denounced by human rights defenders and Western countries.