A man in police custody has confessed to killing a prominent Ugandan gay rights activist who was pictured and named last year in an anti-gay tabloid, police told Agence France-Presse (AFP) on Thursday.
“I haven’t read his statement yet, but what I know is he is confessing,” national police spokesperson Judith Nabakooba said.
Nabakooba explained that Sydney Nsubuga was arrested on Wednesday in Mukono district, roughly 15km east of the capital Kampala.
She said Nsubuga first made an extra-judicial statement to police and was subsequently brought to a magistrate to record a formal confession.
“The next step is to bring him to the people in the community, to confirm the identification and make sure he is the one neighbours saw leaving the house,” she said.
‘Hand Them’
David Kato, a prominent gay rights campaigner was killed last week at his home near Mukono, sparking outrage from rights groups and governments worldwide.
Kato, who was 43 according to a close friend, successfully sued the Rolling Stone tabloid after it printed his name and photo in October as part of story that carried the headline “Hang Them” in reference to gay rights activists.
Kato was also a vocal critic of Uganda’s widely condemned Anti-Homosexual Bill, which is awaiting debate in Parliament and would hugely expand the list of prosecutable offences related to homosexuality if passed into law.
Uganda’s independent Daily Monitor on Thursday quoted an anonymous police source claiming the suspect and Kato were engaged in a sexual relationship.
Kato’s lawyer, John Francis Onyango, previously told AFP that in the days before his death Kato had employed a man, recently released from prison, as a domestic labourer who was also staying with Kato at his home.
Following Kato’s murder, several international leaders demanded a swift investigation, including United States President Barack Obama, the Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, and the United Nation’s human rights chief Navi Pillay. — Sapa-AFP